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A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 


From  the  portrait  by  Titian. 

Charles  V. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF 

SPAIN 


BY 

MARY   PLATT  PARMELE 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1907 


Copyright,  1898,  bv 
MARY  PLATT  PARMELE 


Copyright,  1898,  1906,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


5)  f 


) 


PREFACE. 

In  presenting  this  book  to  the  pubHc  the 
author  can  only  reiterate  what  she  has  already- 
said  in  works  of  a  similar  kind:  that  she  has 
tried  to  exclude  the  mass  of  confusing  details 
which  often  make  the  reading  of  history  a 
dreary  task;  and  to  keep  closely  to  those  facts 
which  are  vital  to-  the  unfolding  of  the  narra- 
tive. This  is  done  under  a  strong  conviction 
that  the  essential  facts  in  history^  are  those 
which  reveal  and  explain  the  development  of 
a  nation,  rather  than  the  incidents,  more  or 
less  entertaining,  which  have  attended  such 
development.  And  also  under  another  con- 
viction: that  a  little,  thoroughly  compre- 
hended, is  better  than  much  imperfectly 
remembered  and  understood. 

M.  P.  P. 

New  York.  Jung  is,  1898. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

Ancient  Iberia— The  Basques— The  Keltiberians— 
The  Phenicians — Cadiz  Founded,        .        .        .      i 

CHAPTER  11. 

Struggle  between  Phenicians  and  Assyrians — 
Founding  of  Carthage — Decline  of  Phenicia— 
Rise  of  Roman  Power — First  Punic  War,  .      9 

CHAPTER  HI. 

Hamilcar— Hannibal— Siege  and  Fall  of  Saguntum 
— Rome  Invades  Spain — Scipio's  Policy — Cadiz, 
(Gades)  Surrendered  to  the  Romans — By  What 
Steps  Iberia  Became  Spain— Fall  of  Carthagin- 
ian Power — How  Spain  Became  a  Roman 
Province, 15 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Sertorius— Story  of  the  White  Hind— Rome  Fights 
Her  Own  Battles  on  Spanish  Soil— Battle  of 
Munda— Caesar  Declared  Dictator — The  Ides  of 
March — Octavius  Augustus — Spain  Latinized — 
Four  Hundred  Years  of  Peace,    .        .        .        .24 


VI 11  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V. 

PAGE 

Northern  Races  in  the  History  of  Civilization — 
Roman  Empire  Expiring — Ataulfus — Attila  and 
the  Huns — Theodoric — Evaric  Completes  Con- 
quest of  Spanish  Peninsula — Europe  Teuton- 
ized — Difference  between  Anglo-Saxon  and 
Latin  Races, 30 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Ulfilas — Arianism — The  Spanish  Language — Brun- 
hilde — Leovigild — His  Son's  Apostasy — Arian- 
ism Ceases  to  be  the  Established  Religion  of 
Spain, 39 

CHAPTER  Vn. 
Toledo — Church  of  Santa  Maria— Wamba,       .        .    45 

CHAPTER  VHL 

Decline  of  Visigoths — Roderick — Count  Julian's 
Treachery — Mahommedanism — Tarif  —  Proph- 
ecy Found  in  the  Enchanted  Tower — Tarik — 
Roderick's  Defeat  and  Death — Moslem  Empire 
Established  in  Spain 50 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Musa's  Dream  of  European  Conquest — Charles  Mar- 
tel — Characteristics  of  Mahommedan  Rule — 
Mission  of  the  Saracen  in  Europe — The  Germ 
of  a  Christian  Kingdom  in  the  North  of 
Spain, 58 


CONTENTS.  WC 

CHAPTER  X. 

PAGE 

Pelayo  and  the  Cave  of  Covadonga — Alfonso  I. — 
Berbers  and  Arabs  at  War  on  African  Coast — 
War  Extends  to  Spain — The  Omeyyad  Khalifs 
Superseded  by  the  Abbasides — Abd-er-Rah- 
man — Omeyyad  Dynasty  Established  at  Cor- 
dova— Ineffectual  Attempt  of  the  Abbasides  to 
Overthrow  Abd-er-Rahman — Character  of  This 
Conqueror 64 

CHAPTER  XI. 
Charlemagne — Battle  of  Roncesvalles,      .        .        .69 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Conditions  after  Death  of  Abd-er-Rahman — Abd- 
er-Rahman  II. — Arab  Refinements — Eulogius 
and  the  Christian  Martyrs — Abd-er-Rahman 
III.— A  Khalifate  at  Cordova— The  Great 
Mosque— The  City  of  "The  Fairest  "—Death 
of  Abd-er-Rahman  III., 7a 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Rough  Cradle  of  a  Spanish  Nationality  in  the 
Asturias— Alfonso  III.  and  His  Hidalgos  and 
Dons — Guerrilla  Warfare  with  Moors — Jeal- 
ousies and  Strife  between  Christian  Kingdoms — 
Civil  War — Almanzor — Ruin  of  Christian  State 
Seemed  Imminent — Death  of  Almanzor — Berber 
Revolt — Anarchy  in  Moorish  State — A  Khalif 
Begging  a  Crust  of  Bread — Berbers  Destroy  Cor- 
dova— Library  Burned — City  of  "  The  Fairest  " 
a  Ruin — Asturias — Leon  and  Castile  United — 
Alfonso  VI.— The  Cid— Triumph  of  Christians— 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Moors  Ask  Aid  of  the  Almoravides — Christians 
Driven  Back — Death  of  the  Cid — A  Dynasty  of 
the  Almoravides — The  Alhomades — The  Great 
Mahdi — Moorish  People  Become  Subject  to 
Emperor  of  Morocco — His  Designs  upon 
Europe — The  Pope  Proclaims  a  Crusade — 
Alhomades  Driven  Out  of  Spain  by  Christians 
— Moorish  Kingdom  Reduced  to  Province  of 
Granada, 78 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

European  Conditions  in  Thirteenth  Century — 
Visigoth  Kings  Recover  Their  Land  —  Its 
Changed  Conditions — Effect  of  Arab  Civiliza- 
tion upon  Spanish  Nation — Fernando  III. — 
Spain  Draws  into  Closer  Companionship  with 
European  States — Alfonso  X. — Spain  Becoming 
Picturesque — The  Bull-Fight — Beautiful  Gra- 
nada— The  Alhambra, 87 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Perpetual  Civil  "War  between  Spanish  States— Cas- 
tile and  Aragon  Absorb  the  Others  and  in  Con- 
flict for  Supremacy  —  Pedro  the  Cruel — The 
"  Black  Prince"  His  Champion  against  Aragon 
— John  of  Gaunt — His  Claim  upon  the  Throne  of 
Castile — His  Final  Compromise — Political  Con- 
ditions Contrasted  with  Those  of  Other 
States, 94, 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Death  of  Juan  II. — Enrique  IV. — Isabella — Her  Mar- 
riage with    Ferdinand     of     Aragon— Isabella 


CONTENTS.  XI 

PAGE 

Crowned  Queen  of  Castile — Ferdinand,  King  of 
Aragon — The  Two  Crowns  United — Character- 
istics of  the  Two  Sovereigns — The  Inquisition 
Created — Jews  Driven  out  of  the  Kingdom — 
Abdul- Hassan's  Defiance — Zahara  —  Family 
Troubles  at  the  Alhambra — Ayesha  and  Boab- 
dil — Alhama  Captured  by  Ferdinand — Boabdil 
Supplants  His  Father— Massacre  of  the  Aben- 
cerrages— Granada  Besieged— Its  Capitulation 
—Moorish  Rule  Ended  in  Spain,         .        .        .100 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Columbus  and  Isabella— Isabella's  Private  Griefs— 
Her  Death— Charles,  King  under  a  Regency- 
Charles  Elected  Emperor  of  Germany — Spain 
during  His  Reign— Cruelties  in  the  East  and 
in  the  West— Vain  Struggle  with  Protestantism 
—Abdication  and  Death  of  Charles,   ,        .        .108 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Philip  II.— Union  of  Spain  and  Portugal— The  Duke 
of  Alva  in  the  Netherlands— War  with  Eng- 
land—Spanish Armada  Destroyed— Death  of 
Philip  II.— Spain's  Decline— Glory  of  the  Name 
"  Castilian," u^ 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Philip  III.— Rebellion  of  the  Moriscos— Last  of  the 
Moors  Conveyed  to  African  Coast— Don  Quixote 
—Philip  IV.— Louis  XIV.  Marries  Spanish  In- 
fanta — A  Diminishing  Kingdom— Carlos  II. — 
First  Collision  between  Anglo-Saxon  and 
Spaniard  in  America— Close  of  Hapsburg  Dy- 
nasty in  Spain, I2t 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XX. 

PAGE 

New  European  Conditions — Louis  XIV. — War 
of  the  "Spanish  Succession" — Marlborough 
Checks  Louis  at  Blenheim — Archduke  Aban- 
dons Sovereignty  in  Spain — Peace  of  Utrecht 
— Further  Dismemberment  of  Spain — Gibraltar 
Passes  to  England — Bourbon  Dynasty — Com- 
mences with  Philip  V. — Ferdinand  VI. — Carlos 
III. — Expulsion  of  the  Jesuits,     ....  131 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

A  Dismantled  Kingdom — Spanish-American  Colo- 
nies— England  and  France  at  War  over  Ameri- 
can Boundaries — Spain  the  Ally  of  France — 
Loss  of  Some  of  Her  West  India  Islands,  and 
Capture  of  Havana  and  Manila  by  British — 
Florida  Given  in  Exchange  for  Return  of  Con- 
quered Territory — Growing  Irritation  against 
England — France  Aids  American  Colonies  in 
War  with  England — Spain's  Satisfaction  at 
Their  Success — Its  Eifect  in  Peru — Revolution 
in  France — Rapid  Rise  of  Napoleon — Carlos  IV. 
Removed  and  Joseph  Bonaparte  King — Spain 
Joins  Napoleon  in  War  against  England — Tra- 
falgar— Arthur  Wellesley — Joseph  Flees  from 
His  Kingdom 137 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

Liberal  Sentiment  Developing  —  Constitution  of 
1812 — Ferdinand  VI.  and  Reactionary  Meas- 
ures —  Revolt  of  all  the  Spanish-American 
Colonies  —  The  Holy  Alliance — The  Monroe 
Doctrine — Revolution  in   Spain — Spain    under 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

PAGE 

the  Protectorate  of  the  Holy  Alliance — Ferdi- 
nand Reinstated— Two  Political  Parties— Six 
Spanish-American  Colonies  Freed,     .        .        .  144 

CHAPTER  XXni. 

The  Salic  Law  and  the  Princess  Isabella— The 
Carlists— Regency  of  Christine — Isabella  II. — 
Her  Expulsion  from  Spain — Amadeo — An  Era 
of  Republicanism— Castelar — Alfonso  XII.  Re- 
called— His  Brief  Reign  and  Death — Alfonso 
XIII.. 


150 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


Birth  of  an  Insurgent  Party  in  Cuba — Ten  Years* 
War — Impossible  Reforms  Promised — Revolu- 
tion Started  by  Jos6  Marti,  1895 — Attitude  of 
the  American  Government — General  Weyler's 
Methods — Effect  upon  Sentiment  in  America — 
Destruction  of  the  Battle -Ship  Maine— N&r6\c\. 
of  Court  of  Inquiry — War  Declared  between 
Spain  and  America — Victories  of  Manila  and  in 
Cuba — Terms  of  Peace — Marriage  of  Alfonso 
XIII.  and  the  Princess  Ena,        .        .        .        .154. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Charles  V. Frontispiece 


FACING 
PAGE 


Columbus  at  the  Court  of  Ferdinand   and   Isa- 
bella      io8 

The  Surrender  of  Breda ii8 

Philip  IV.  of  Spain 126 

Heroic  Combat  in  the  Pulpit  of  the  Church  of 

St.  Augustine,  Saragossa,  1809  ....     144 

The  Duke  de  la  Torre   sworn  in  as  Regent  be- 
fore the  Cortes  of  1869 152 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 


CHAPTER  I. 

No  name  is  more  fraught  with  picturesque 
and  romantic  interest  than  that  of  the  "  Span- 
ish Peninsula." 

After  finishing  this  rare  bit  of  handiwork 
nature  seems  to  have  thrown  up  a  great 
ragged  wall,  stretching  from  sea  to  sea,  to  pro- 
tect it;  and  the  Pyrenees  have  stood  for  ages 
a  frowning  barrier,  descending  toward  France 
on  the  northern  side  from  gradually  decreas- 
ing heights — but  on  the  Spanish  side  in  wild 
disorder,  plunging  down  through  steep 
chasms,  ravines,  and  precipices — with  sharp 
cliffs  towering  thousands  of  feet  skyward, 
which  better  than  standing  armies  protect  the 
sunny  plains  below. 

But  the  "  Spanish  Peninsula,"  at  the  time 
we  are  about  to  consider,  was  neither  "  Span- 
ish "  nor  was  it  a  "  peninsula."     At  the  dawn 


2       A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

of  history  this  sunny  corner  of  Europe  was 
known  as  Iberia,  and  its  people  as  Iberians. 

Time  has  effaced  all  positive  knowledge  of 
this  aboriginal  race;  but  they  are  believed  to 
have  come  from  the  south,  and  to  have  been 
allied  to  the  Libyans,  who  inhabited  the 
northern  coast  of  Africa.  In  fact,  Iberi  in 
the  Libyan  tongue  meant  freeman;  and 
Berber,  apparently  derived  from  that  word, 
was  the  term  by  which  all  of  these  western 
peoples  were  known  to  the  Ancient  Egyp- 
tians. 

But  it  is  suspected  that  the  Iberians  found 
it  an  easy  matter  to  flow  into  the  land  south 
of  the  Pyrenees,  and  that  they  needed  no 
boats  for  the  transit.  There  has  always  ex- 
isted a  tradition  of  the  joining  of  the  two  con- 
tinents, and  now  it  is  believed  by  geologists 
that  an  isthmus  once  really  stretched  across 
to  the  African  coast  at  the  narrowest  point  of 
the  Straits,  at  a  time  when  the  waters  of  a 
Mediterranean  gulf,  and  the  waters  flowing 
over  the  sands  of  Sahara,  together  found  their 
outlet  in  the  Indian  Ocean. 

There  is  also  a  tradition  that  the  adventu- 
rous Phenicians,  who  are  known  to  have  been 
in  Iberia  as  early  as  1300  b.  c,  cut  a  canal 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  3 

through  the  narrow  strip  of  land,  and  then 
built  a  bridge  across  the  canal.  But  a  bridge 
was  a  frail  link  by  which  to  hold  the  mighty 
continents  together.  The  Atlantic,  glad  of 
such  an  entrance  to  the  great  gulf  beyond, 
must  have  rushed  impetuously  through, 
gradually  widening  the  opening,  and  (may 
have)  thus  permanently  severed  Europe  and 
Africa;  drained  the  Sahara  dry;  transformed 
the  Mediterranean  gulf  into  a  Mediterranean 
Sea;  and  created  a  "  Spanish  Peninsula." 

How  long  this  fair  Peninsula  was  the  un- 
disturbed home  of  the  Iberians  no  one  knows. 
Behind  the  rocky  ramparts  of  the  Pyrenees 
they  may  have  remained  for  centuries  uncon- 
scious of  the  Aryan  torrent  which  was  flood- 
ing Western  Europe  as  far  as  the  British  Isles. 
Nothing  has  been  discovered  by  which  we 
may  reconstruct  this  prehistoric  people  and 
(perhaps)  civilization.  But  their  physical 
characteristics  we  are  enabled  to  guess;  for 
just  as  we  find  in  Cornwall,  England,  linger- 
ing traces  of  the  ancient  Britons,  so  in  the 
mountain  fastnesses  of  northern  Spain  linger 
the  Basques,  who  are  by  many  supposed  to  be 
the  last  survivors  of  that  mysterious  primitive 
race. 


4  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

The  language  of  the  Basques  bears  no  re- 
semblance to  any  of  the  Indo-European,  nor 
indeed  to  any  known  tongue.  It  is  so  diffi- 
cult, so  intricate  in  construction,  that  only 
those  who  learn  it  in  infancy  can  ever  master 
it.  It  is  said  that,  in  Basque,  ''  you  spell  Solo- 
mon, and  pronounce  it  Nebuchadnezzar." 
Its  antiquity  is  so  great  that  one  legend  calls 
it  the  "  language  of  the  angels,"  and  another 
says  that  Tubal  brought  it  to  Spain  before  the 
lingual  disaster  at  Babel!  And  still  another 
relates  that  the  devil  once  tried  to  learn  it, 
but  that,  after  studying  it  for  seven  years  and 
learning  only  three  words,  he  gave  it  up  in 
despair. 

A  language  which,  without  literature,  can 
so  resist  change,  can  so  persist  unmodified  by 
another  tongue  spoken  all  around  and  about 
it,  must  have  great  antiquity;  and  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe  that  the  Basque  is  a 
survival  of  the  tongue  spoken  by  the  primi- 
tive Iberians,  before  the  Kelts  began  to  flow 
over  and  around  the  Pyrennees ;  and  also  that 
the  physical  characteristics  of  this  people  are 
the  same  as  those  of  their  ancient  progenitors; 
small-framed,  dark,  with  a  faint  suggestion  of 
the  Semitic  in  their  swarthy  faces. 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  $ 

We  cannot  say  when  it  occurred,  but  at 
last  the  powerful,  warlike  Kelts  had  sur- 
mounted the  barrier  and  were  mingled  with 
this  non-Aryan  people,  and  the  resulting  race 
thus  formed  was  known  to  antiquity  as  the 
Kcltiherians. 

It  is  probable  that  the  rugged  Kelt  easily 
absorbed  the  race  of  more  delicate  type,  and 
made  it,  in  religion  and  customs,  not  unlike 
the  Keltic  An^an  in  Gaul.  But  the  physical 
characteristics  of  the  other  and  primitive  race 
are  indelibly  stamped  upon  the  Spanish  peo- 
ple; and  it  is  probably  to  the  Iberian  strain  in 
the  blood  that  may  be  traced  the  small,  dark, 
type  of  men  which  largely  prevails  in  Spain, 
and  to  some  extent  also  in  central  and  south- 
ern France. 

But  the  Keltiberians  were  Keltic  in  their 
religion.  There  are  now  in  Spain  the  usual 
monuments  found  wherever  Druid  worship 
prevailed.  Huge  blocks  of  stone,  especially 
in  Cantabria  and  Lusitania  (Portugal),  stand- 
ing alone  or  in  circles,  tell  the  story  of  Druidi- 
cal  rites,  and  of  the  worship  of  the  ocean,  the 
wind,  and  the  thunder,  and  of  the  placating  of 
the  powers  of  nature  by  human  sacrifices. 

The  mingling  of  the  Kelts  and  the  Iberians 


6  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

in  varying  proportions  in  different  parts  of 
Spain,  and  in  some  places  (as  among  the 
Basques)  their  minghng  not  at  all,  produced 
that  diversity  of  traits  which  distinguished  the 
Asturians  in  the  mountain  gorges  from  their 
neighbors  the  Cantabrians,  and  both  these 
from  the  Catalonians  in  the  northeast  and  the 
Gallicians  on  the  northwest  coast,  and  from 
the  Lusitanians,  where  now  is  Portugal;  and 
still  more  distinguished  the  Basques,  in  the 
rocky  ravines  of  the  Pyrenees,  from  each  and 
all  of  the  others.  And  yet  these  unlike  mem- 
bers of  one  family  were  collectively  known  as 
Keltiberians. 

While  this  race — hardy,  temperate,  brave, 
and  superstitious — was  leading  its  primitive 
life  upon  the  Iberian  peninsula,  while  they 
were  shooting  arrows  at  the  sky  to  threaten 
the  thunder,  drawing  their  swords  against  the 
rising  tide,  and  prizing  iron  more  dearly  than 
their  abundant  gold  and  silver,  because  they 
could  hammer  it  into  hooks,  and  swords,  and 
spears — there  had  long  existed  in  the  East  a 
group  of  wonderful  civilizations:  the  Egyp- 
tian, hoary  with  age  and  steeped  in  wisdom 
and  in  wickedness;  the  Chaldeans,  who,  with 
"  looks  commercing  with  the  skies,"  were  the 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAING  7 

fathers  of  astronomy;  the  Assyrians  and 
Babylonians,  with  their  wonderful  cities  of 
Nineveh  and  Babylon,  and  the  Phenicians,  with 
their  no  less  famous  cities  of  Sidon  and  Tyre. 
Sidon,  which  was  the  more  ancient  of  these 
two,  is  said  to  have  been  founded  by  Sidon, 
the  son  of  Canaan,  who  was  the  great-grand- 
son of  Noah. 

Of  all  these  nations  it  was  the  Phenicians 
who  were  the  most  adventurous.  They  were 
a  Semitic  people,  Syrian  in  blood,  and  their 
home  was  a  narrow  strip  of  coast  on  the  east 
of  the  Mediterranean,  where  a  group  of  free 
cities  was  joined  into  a  confederacy  held  to- 
gether by  a  strong  national  spirit. 

Of  these  cities  Sidon  was  once  the  head, 
but  in  time  Tyre  eclipsed  it  in  splendor,  and 
writers,  sacred  and  profane,  have  sung  her 
glories. 

These  Phenicians  had  a  genius  for  com- 
merce and  trade.  They  scented  a  bargain 
from  afar,  and  knew  how  to  exchange  "  their 
broidered  work,  and  fine  linen,  and  coral,  and 
agate  "  (i  Kings  xxvii.  i6),  their  glassware 
and  their  wonderful  cloths  dyed  in  Tyrian 
scarlet  and  purple,  for  the  spices  and  jewels 
of   the    East,    and    for   the    gold    and    silver 


8  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

and  the  ivory  and  the  ebony  of  the  south 
and  west. 

Their  ships  were  coursing  the  Red  Sea  and 
the  Persian  Gulf  and  bringing  back  treasures 
from  India  and  searching  every  inlet  in  the 
Mediterranean,  and  finally,  either  through  the 
canal  they  are  said  to  have  cut,  or  the  straits 
if  had  made,  they  sailed  as  far  as  the  British 
Isles  and  brought  back  tin. 

But  the  gold  and  silver  of  the  Iberian 
Peninsula  were  more  alluring  than  the  spices 
of  India  or  the  tin  of  Britain.  So  upon  the 
Spanish  coast  they  made  permanent  settle- 
ments and  built  cities.  As  early  as  iioo  b.  c. 
they  had  founded  beyond  the  "  Pillars  of 
Hercules,"  the  City  of  Gades  (Cadiz),  a  walled 
and  fortified  town,  and  had  taught  the  Kelt- 
iberians  how  to  open  and  work  their  gold  and 
silver  mines  systematically;  and  in  exchange 
they  brought  an  old  civilization,  with  new 
luxuries,  new  ideas  and  customs  into  the  lives 
of  the  simple  people. 

But  they  bestowed  something  far  beyond 
this — something  more  enriching  than  silver 
and  gold, — an  alphabet, — and  it  is  to  the 
Phenicians  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  alpha- 
bet now  in  use  throughout  the  civilized  world. 


CHAPTER  IL 

Such  an  extension  of  power,  and  the  acqui- 
sition of  sources  of  wealth  so  boundless,  ex- 
cited the  envy  of  other  nations. 

The  Greeks  are  said  to  have  been  in  the 
Iberian  peninsula  long  before  the  fall  of  Troy, 
where  they  came  with  a  fleet  from  Zante,  in 
the  Ionian  Sea,  and  in  memory  of  that  place, 
called  the  city  they  founded  Zacynthus,  which 
name  in  time  became  Sagiintum.  Now  they 
sent  more  expeditions  and  founded  more 
cities  on  the  Spanish  coast;  and  the  Babylo- 
nians, and  the  Assyrians,  and,  at  a  later  time, 
the  Persians  and  the  Greeks,  all  took  up  arms 
against  these  insatiate  traders. 

Phenician  supremacy  was  not  easily  main- 
tained with  so  many  jealous  rivals  in  the  field, 
and  it  w^as  rudely  shaken  in  850  b.  c,  when 

"  The  Assyrian  came  down  like  the  wolf  on  the  fold, 
And  his  cohorts  were  gleaming  in  purple  and  gold." 

and  the  Phenician  power  was  partially  broken 
at  its  source  in  the  East. 

It  is  with  thrilling  interest  that  we  read 


lo  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

Isaiah's  prophecy  of  the  destruction  of  Tyre, 
which  was  written  at  this  very  time.     For  the 
Phenicians  were  the  Canaanitcs  of  Bible  his- 
tory, and  "  Hiram  King  of  Tyre  "  was  their 
king;  and  his  "  navy,"  which,  together  with 
Solomon's  "  came  once  in  three  years  from 
Tarshish,"  was  their  navy;  and  Tarshish  was 
none  other  than  Tartessus,  their  own  prov- 
ince, just  beyond  Gibraltar  on  the  Spanish 
coast.     Nor  is  it  at  all  improbable  that  Span- 
ish gold  was  used  to  adorn  the  temple  which 
the  great  Solomon  was  building,     (i   Kings 
ix.,  X.)     Shakspere,  who  says  all  things  better 
than  anyone  else,  makes  Othello  find  in  the 
fatal  handkerchief   "  confirmation   strong  as 
proofs  from  holy  writ."     Where  can  be  found 
"  confirmation  "  stronger  than  these  "  proofs 
from  holy  writ  "?     And  where  a  more  mag- 
nificent picture  of  the  luxury,  the  sumptuous 
Oriental  splendor  of  this  nation  at  that  period, 
than    in    Ezekiel,    chapters    xxvii.,   xxviii.? 
What    an    eloquent    apostrophe    to    Tyre — 
"  thou  that  art  situate  at  the  entry  of  the  sea, 
a  merchant  of  the  people,  for  many  isles.'' — 
"  With  thy  wisdom   and   with   thine   under- 
standing thou  hast  gotten  thee  riches,"  and, 
*'  by  thy  great  wisdom  and  by  thy  tra^ck  hast 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  II 

thou  increased,  and  thine  heart  is  lifted  up." 
And  then  follows  the  terrible  arraignment — • 
"  because  of  the  iniquity  of  thy  traffick."  And 
then  the  final  prediction  of  ruin — "  I  will 
bring  thee  to  ashes  upon  the  earth";  "  thou 
shalt  be  a  terror,  and  never  shalt  thou  be  any 
more."  Where  in  any  literature  can  we  find 
such  lurid  splendor  of  description,  and  such 
a  powerful  appeal  to  the  imagination  of  the 
reader!  And  where  could  the  student  of  his- 
tory find  a  more  graphic  and  accurate  pic- 
ture of  a  vanished  civilization! 

In  850  B.  c,  the  same  year  in  which  the 
Assyrians  partly  subjugated  the  Phenicians  in 
the  East,  the  city  of  Carthage  was  founded 
upon  the  north  coast  of  Africa,  and  there  com- 
menced a  movement,  with  that  city  as  its  cen- 
ter, which  drew  together  all  their  scattered 
possessions  into  a  Punic  confederacy.  This 
was  composed  of  the  islands  of  Sardinia,  Cor- 
sica, part  of  Sicily,  the  Balearic  Isles,  and  the 
cities  and  colonies  upon  the  Spanish  Peninsula 
and  African  coast.  As  the  power  of  this  con- 
federacy expands,  the  name  Phenician  passes 
away  and  that  of  Carthaginian  takes  its  place 
in  history. 

Carthage  became  a  mighty  city,  and  con- 


12  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

trolled  with  a  strong  hand  the  scattered 
empire  which  had  been  planted  by  the 
Syrian  tradesmen.  Carthaginian  merchants 
and  miners  were  in  Tartessus,  and  were  plant- 
ing cities  and  colonies  throughout  the  penin- 
sula, and  a  torrent  of  Carthaginian  life  was 
thus  pouring  into  Spain  for  many  hundred 
years,  and  the  blood  of  the  two  races  must 
have  freely  mingled. 

There  are  memorials  of  this  time  now  ex- 
isting, not  only  in  Phenician  coins,  medals, 
and  ruins,  but  in  the  names  of  the  cities. 
Barcelona,  named  after  the  powerful  family  of 
Barca  in  Carthage,  to  which  Hannibal  be- 
longed. Carthagena,  a  memorial  of  Carthage, 
which  meant  "  the  city  ";  and  even  Cordova  is 
traced  to  its  primitive  form, — Kartah-duba, 
— meaning  "  an  important  city."  While  Isa- 
bella, the  name  most  famous  in  Spanish  annals, 
has  a  still  greater  antiquity;  and  was  none 
other  than  Jezebel — after  the  beautiful  daugh- 
ter of  the  King  of  Sidon  (the  "  Zidoneans  "), 
who  married  Ahab,  and  lured  him  to  his 
downfall.  And  we  are  told  that  this  wicked 
siren  whose  dreadful  fate  Elijah  foretold, 
was  cousin  to  Dido,  she  who  Virgil  tells  us 
*'wept  in  silence"  for  the  faithless  ^neas. 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  1 3 

With  what  a  strange  thrill  do  we  find  these 
threads  of  association  between  history  sacred 
and  profane,  and  both  mingled  with  the  mod- 
ern history  of  Spain. 

But  Phenicia,  for  the  "  iniquity  of  her 
trafifick,"  was  doomed.  The  roots  of  this  old 
Asiatic  tree  had  been  slowly  and  surely  per- 
ishing, while  her  branches  in  the  West  were 
expanding.  In  the  year  332  b.  c.  the  siege  and 
destruction  of  Tyre,  predicted  five  hundred 
years  before  by  Isaiah,  was  accomplished  by 
Alexander  the  Great,  and  the  words  of  the 
prophet  found  their  complete  fulfillment — 
that  the  people  of  Tarshish  should  find  no 
city,  no  port,  no  welcome,  when  they  came 
back  to  Syria! 

But  on  the  northern  coast  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean there  was  another  power  which  was  wax- 
ing, while  the  Carthaginian  was  waning. 
The  occupation  of  the  young  Roman  Repub- 
lic was  not  trade,  but  conquest.  A  bitter 
enmity  existed  between  the  two  nations. 
Rome  was  determined  to  break  this  grasping 
old  Asiatic  confederacy  and  to  drive  it  out  of 
Europe.  The  Spanish  Peninsula  she  knew 
Httle  about,  but  the  rich  islands  near  her  own 
coast — they  must  be  hers. 


14  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

When,  after  the  first  Punic  war  (264-241 
B.  c),  the  Carthaginians  saw  Sardinia  and 
Sicily  torn  from  them,  Hamilcar,  their  great 
general,  determined  upon  a  plan  of  vengeance 
which  should  make  of  Italy  a  Punic  province. 
His  people  were  strong  upon  the  sea,  but  for 
this  war  of  invasion  they  must  have  an  army, 
too.  So  he  conceived  the  idea  of  making 
Spain  the  basis  of  his  military  operations,  and 
recruiting  an  immense  army  from  the  Iberian 
Peninsula. 


CHAPTER   III. 

The  Carthaginian  occupation  of  Spain  had 
not  extended  much  beyond  the  coast,  and  had 
been  rather  in  the  nature  of  a  commercial  alli- 
ance with  a  few  cities.  Now  Hamilcar  de- 
termined, by  placating-,  and  by  bribes,  and  if 
necessary  by  force,  to  take  possession  of  the 
Peninsula  for  his  own  purposes,  and  to  make 
of  the  people  a  Punic  nation  under  the  com- 
plete dominion  of  Carthage.  So  his  first  task 
was  to  win,  or  to  subdue,  the  Keltiberians. 
He  built  the  city  of  New  Carthage  (now 
Carthagena),  he  showed  the  people  how  to  de- 
velop their  immense  resources,  and  by  prom- 
ises of  increased  prosperity  won  the  confi- 
dence and  sympathy  of  the  nation,  and  soon 
had  a  population  of  millions  from  which  to 
recruit  its  army. 

When  his  son  Hannibal  was  nine  years  old, 
at  his  father's  bidding  he  placed  his  hand  upon 
the  altar  and  swore  eternal  enmity  to  Rome. 
The  fidelity  of  the  boy  to  his  oath  made  a 
great  deal  of  history.     He  took  up  the  task 

IS 


1 6  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

when  his  father  laid  it  down,  inaugurated  the 
second  Punic  war  (218-201  B.  c.) ;  and  for 
forty  years  carried  on  one  of  the  most  des- 
perate struggles  the  world  has  ever  seen;  the 
hoary  East  in  struggle  with  the  young  West. 

Saguntum  was  that  ancient  city  in  Valencia 
which  was  said  to  have  been  founded  by  the 
Greeks  long  before  Homer  sang  of  Troy, 
or,  indeed,  before  Helen  brought  ruin  upon 
that  city.  At  all  events  its  antiquity  was 
greater  even  than  that  of  the  Phenician  cities 
in  Spain,  and  after  being  long  forgotten  by 
the  Greeks  it  had  drifted  under  Roman  pro- 
tection. It  was  the  only  spot  in  Spain  which 
acknowledged  allegiance  to  Rome;  and  for 
that  reason  was  marked  for  destruction  as  an 
act  of  defiance. 

The  Saguntines  sent  an  embassy  to  Rome. 
These  men  made  a  pitiful  and  passionate  ap- 
peal in  the  Senate  Chamber:  "  Romans,  allies, 
friends!  help!  help!  Hannibal  is  at  the  gates 
of  our  city.  Hannibal,  the  sworn  enemy  of 
Rome.  Hannibal  the  terrible.  Hannibal 
who  fears  not  the  gods,  neither  keeps  faith 
with  men.  ["  Punic  faith  "  was  a  byword.] 
O  Romans,  fathers,  friends!  help  while  there 
is  yet  time." 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  17 

But  they  found  they  had  a  "  protector " 
\vho  did  not  protect.  The  senators  sent  an 
embassy  to  treat  with  Hannibal,  but  no  sol- 
diers. So,  with  desperate  courage,  the  Sag- 
untines  defended  their  beleaguered  city  for 
weeks,  hurling  javelins,  thrusting  their  lances, 
and  beating  down  the  besiegers  from  the 
walls.  They  had  no  repeating  rifles  nor  dyna- 
mite guns,  but  they  had  the  terrible  falaric, 
a  shaft  of  fir  with  an  iron  head  a  yard  long,  at 
the  point  of  which  was  a  mass  of  burning  tow, 
which  had  been  dipped  in  pitch.  When  a 
breach  w^as  made  in  the  walls,  the  inflowing 
army  would  be  met  by  a  rain  of  this  deadly 
falaric,  which  was  hurled  with  telling  power 
and  precision.  Then,  in  the  short  interval  of 
rest  this  gave  them,  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren swiftly  repaired  the  broken  walls  before 
the  next  assault. 

But  at  last  the  resourceful  Hannibal  aban- 
doned his  battering  rams,  and  with  pickaxes 
undermined  the  wall,  which  fell  with  a  crash. 
When  asked  to  surrender,  the  chief  men  of  the 
city  kindled  a  great  fire  in  the  market-place, 
into  which  they  then  threw  all  the  silver  and 
gold  in  the  treasury,  their  own  gold  and  silver 
and  garments  and  furniture,  and  then  cast 


l8  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

themselves  headlong  into  the  flames.     This 
was  their  answer. 

Saguntum,  which  for  more  than  a  thousand 
years  had  looked  from  its  elevation  out  upon 
the  sea,  was  no  more,  and  its  destruction  was 
one  of  the  thrilling  tragedies  of  ancient  his- 
tory. On  its  site  there  exists  to-day  a  town 
called  Mur  Viedro  (old  walls),  and  these  old 
walls  are  the  last  vestige  of  ancient  Sagun- 
tum. 

In  order  to  understand  the  indifference  of 
Rome  to  the  Spanish  Peninsula  at  this  time,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  Spain  was  then  the 
uttermost  verge  of  the  known  world,  beyond 
which  was  only  a  dread  waste  of  waters  and  of 
mystery.  To  the  people  of  Tyre  and  of 
Greece,  the  twin  "  Pillars  of  Hercules  "  had 
marked  the  limit  beyond  which  there  was 
nothing;  and  those  two  columns,  Gibraltar 
and  Ceuta,  with  the  legend  ne  plus  ultra  en- 
twined about  them,  still  survive,  as  a  symbol, 
in  the  arms  of  Spain  and  upon  the  Spanish 
coins;  and  what  is  still  more  interesting  to 
Americans,  in  the  familiar  mark  ($)  which  rep- 
resents a  dollar.  (The  English  name  for  the 
Spanish  peso  is  pillar-dollar.) 

Now  Rome  was  aroused  from  its  apathy. 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  19 

It  sent  an  army  into  Spain,  led  by  Scipio  the 
Elder,  known  as  Scipio  Africanus.  When 
he  fell,  his  son,  only  twenty-four  years  old, 
stood  up  in  the  Roman  Forum  and  offered  to 
fill  the  undesired  post;  and,  in  210  B.C.,  Scipio 
"  the  Younger  " — and  the  greater — took  the 
command — as  Livy  eloquently  says — ''  be- 
tween the  tombs  of  his  father  and  his  uncle," 
who"  had  both  perished  in  Spain  within  a 
month. 

The  chief  feature  of  Scipio's  poHcy  was, 
while  he  was  defeating  Hannibal  in  battles,  to 
be  undermining  him  with  his  native  allies; 
and  to  make  that  people  realize  to  what  hard 
taskmasters  they  had  bound  themselves;  and 
by  his  own  manliness  and  courtesy  and  jus- 
tice to  win  them  to  his  side. 

He  marched  his  army  swiftly  and  unexpect- 
edly upon  New  Carthage,  the  capital  and  cen- 
ter of  the  whole  Carthaginian  movement,  sent 
his  fleet  to  blockade  the  city,  and  planned 
his  moves  with  such  precision  that  the 
fleet  for  the  blockade  and  the  army  for  the 
siege  arrived  before  the  city  on  the  same 
day. 

Taken  entirely  by  surprise.  New  Carthage 
was  captured  without  a  siege.     Not  one  of  the 


20  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

inhabitants  was  spared,  and  spoil  of  fabulous 
amounts  fell  to  the  victors. 

It  seems  like  a  fairy  tale — or  like  the  story 
of  Mexico  and  Peru  1800  years  later — to  read 
of  276  golden  bowls  which  were  brought 
to  Scipio's  tent,  countless  vessels  of  silver, 
and  18  tons  of  coined  and  wrought 
silver. 

But  the  richest  part  of  the  prize  was  the  750 
Spanish  hostages — high  in  rank  of  course — 
whom  the  various  tribes  had  given  in  pledge 
of  their  fidelity  to  Carthage.  Now  Scipio  held 
these  pledges,  and  they  were  a  menace  and  a 
promise.  They  were  Roman  slaves,  but  he 
could  by  kindness,  and  by  holding  out  the 
hope  of  emancipation,  placate  and  further 
bind  to  him  the  native  people. 

By  an  exercise  of  tact  and  clemency  Scipio 
gained  such  an  ascendancy  over  the  inhabi- 
tants, and  so  moved  were  they  by  this  unex- 
pected generosity  and  kindness,  that  many 
would  gladly  have  made  him  their  king. 

But  he  seems  to  have  been  the  "  noblest 
Roman  of  them  all,"  and  when  saluted  as  king 
on  one  occasion  he  said :  "  Never  call  me  king. 
Other  nations  may  revere  that  name,  but 
no  Roman  can  endure  it.     My  soldiers  have, 


A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  SPAIN.  2  1 

given  me  a  more  honorable  title — that  of 
general." 

Such  nobility,  such  a  display  of  Roman 
virtue,  was  a  revelation  to  these  barbarians; 
and  they  felt  the  grandeur  of  the  words, 
though  they  could  not  quite  understand  them. 
They  were  won  to  the  cause  of  Rome,  and 
formed  loyal  alliances  with  Scipio  which  they 
never  broke. 

In  the  year  206  B.  c.  Gades  (Cadiz),  the  last 
stronghold,  was  surrendered  to  the  Romans, 
and  the  entire  Spanish  Peninsula  had  been 
wrenched  from  the  Carthaginians. 

Iberia  was  changed  to  Hispania,  and  fifteen 
years  later  the  whole  of  the  Peninsula  was  or- 
ganized into  a  Roman  province,  thenceforth 
known  in  history,  not  as  Iberia,  nor  yet  His- 
pania; but  Spain,  and  its  people  as  Spaniards. 

At  the  end  of  the  third  Punic  w^ar  (149-146 
B.  c. ),  the  ruin  of  the  Carthaginians  was  com- 
plete. Hannibal  had  died  a  fugitive  and  a 
suicide.  His  nation  had  not  a  single  ship  upon 
the  seas,  nor  a  foot  of  territory  upon  the  earth, 
and  the  great  city  of  Carthage  was  plowed 
and  sowed  with  salt.  Rome  had  been  used  by 
Fate  to  fulfill  her  stern  decree — "  Dclenda  est 
Carthago." 


2  2  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

It  was  really  only  a  limited  portion  of  the 
Peninsula;  a  fringe  of  provinces  upon  the 
south  and  east  coast,  which  had  been  under 
Carthaginian  and  now  acknowledged  Roman 
dominion.  Beyond  these  the  Keltiberian 
tribes  in  the  center  formed  a  sort  of  confedera- 
tion, and  consented  to  certain  alliances  with 
the  Romans;  while  beyond  them,  intrenched 
in  their  own  impregnable  mountain  fastnesses, 
were  brave,  warlike,  independent  tribes,  which 
had  never  known  anything  but  freedom, 
whose  names  even,  Rome  had  not  yet  heard. 
The  stern  virtue  and  nobility  of  Scipio  proved 
a  delusive  promise.  Rome  had  not  an  easy 
task,  and  other  and  brutal  methods  were  to  be 
employed  in  subduing  stubborn  tribes  and 
making  of  the  whole  a  Latin  nation.  In  one 
of  the  defiles  of  the  Pyrenees  there  may  now  be 
seen  the  ruins  of  fortifications  built  by  Cato 
the  Elder,  not  long  after  Scipio,  which  show 
how  early  those  free  people  in  the  north  were 
made  to  feel  the  iron  heel  of  the  master  and  to 
learn  their  lesson  of  submission. 

The  century  which  followed  Scipio's  con- 
quest was  one  of  dire  experience  for  Spain. 
A  Roman  army  was  trampling  out  every  ves- 
tige of  freedom  in  provinces  which  had  known 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  23 

nothing  else;  and  more  than  that,  Roman 
diplomacy  was  making  of  their  new  posses- 
sion a  fighting  ground  for  the  civil  war  which 
was  then  raging  at  Rome;  and  partisans  of 
Marius  and  of  Sylla  were  using  and  slaugh- 
tering the  native  tribes  in  their  own  desperate 
struggle.  Roman  rule  was  arrogant  and 
oppressive,  Roman  governors  cruel,  arbitrary, 
and  rapacious,  and  the  boasted  "  Roman  vir- 
tue "  seemed  to  have  been  left  in  Rome,  when 
treaties  were  made  only  to  be  violated  at 
pleasure. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

As  nature  delights  in  adorning  the  crevices 
of  crumbling  ruins  with  mosses  and  graceful 
lichens,  so  literature  has  busied  itself  with 
these  historic  ruins;  and  Cervantes  has  made 
the  siege  of  Numantia  (134  B.  c.) — more  ter- 
rible even  than  that  of  Saguntum — the  sub- 
ject of  a  poem,  in  which  he  depicts  the  horrors 
of  the  famine. 

Lira,  the  heroine,  answers  her  ardent  lover 
Mirando  in  high-flown  Spanish  phrase,  which, 
when  summed  up  in  plain  English  prose, 
means  that  she  cannot  listen  to  his  wooing, 
because  she  is  so  hungry — which,  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  she  has  not  tasted  food  for  weeks, 
seems  to  us  not  surprising! 

Sertorius,  whose  story  is  told  by  Plutarch, 
affords  another  picturesque  subject  for  Cor- 
neille  in  one  of  his  most  famous  tragedies. 
This  Roman  was  an  adherent  of  Marius  in  the 
long  struggle  with  Sylla,  and  while  upholding 
his  cause  in  Spain  he  won  to  his  side  the  peo- 

24 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  25 

pie  of  Lusitania  (Portugal),  who  made  him 
their  ruler,  and  helped  him  to  fight  the  great 
army  of  the  opposing  Roman  faction,  part  of 
which  was  led  by  Pompey. 

Mithridates,  in  Asia  Minor,  was  also  in  con- 
flict with  Sylla,  and  sent  an  embassy  to  Ser- 
torius  which  led  to  a  league  between  the  two 
for  mutual  aid,  and  for  the  defense  of  the  cause 
of  Marius.  But  senators  of  his  own  party  be- 
came jealous  of  the  great  elevation  of  Ser- 
torius,  and  conspired  to  assassinate  him  at  a 
feast  to  which  he  was  invited.  So  ended  {y2 
B.  c.)  one  of  the  most  picturesque  characters 
and  interesting  episodes  in  the  difficult  march 
of  barbarous  Spain  toward  enlightenment  and 
civilization. 

Sertorius  seems  to  have  been  a  great  ad- 
ministrator as  well  as  fighter,  and  must  also  be 
counted  one  of  the  civilizers  of  Spain.  He 
founded  a  school  at  Osca, — now  Huesca, — 
where  he  had  Roman  and  Greek  masters  for 
the  Spanish  youth.  And  it  is  interesting  to 
learn  that  there  is  to-day  at  that  city  a  uni- 
versity which  bears  the  title  "  University  of 
Sertorius." 

But  it  is  not  the  valor  nor  the  sagacity  of 
Sertorius   which   made   him   the   favorite   of 


26  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

poets;  but  the  story  of  the  White  Hind,  which 
he  made  to  serve  him  so  ingeniously  in  estab- 
Hshing  his  authority  with  the  Lusitanians, 

A  milk-white  fawn,  on  account  of  its  rarity, 
was  given  him  by  a  peasant.  He  tamed  her, 
and  she  became  his  constant  companion,  un- 
afifrighted  even  in  the  tumult  of  battle.  He 
saw  that  the  people  began  to  invest  the  little 
animal  with  supernatural  qualities;  so,  finally, 
he  confided  to  them  that  she  was  sent  to  him 
by  the  Goddess  Diana,  who  spoke  to  him 
through  her,  and  revealed  important  secrets. 
Such  is  the  story  which  Corneille  and 
writers  in  other  lands  have  found  so  fascinat- 
ing, and  which  an  English  author  has  made 
the  subject  of  his  poem  "  The  White  Hind  of 
Sertorius." 

Another  Roman  civil  war,  more  pregnant 
of  great  results,  was  to  be  fought  out  in  Spain. 
Julius  Caesar's  conspiracy  against  the  Roman 
Republic,  and  his  desperate  fight  with  Pom- 
pey  for  the  dictatorship,  long  drenched  Span- 
ish soil  vdth  blood,  and  had  its  final  culmina- 
tion (after  Pompey's  tragic  death  in  Egypt) 
in  Csesar's  victory  over  Pompey's  sons  at 
Munda,  in  Spain,  45  B.  c. 

With  this  event,  the  military  triumphs  and 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPJ/JV.  27 

the  intrigues  of  Caesar  had  accomplished  his 
purpose.  He  was  declared  Impcrator,  per- 
petual Dictator  of  Rome,  and  religious  sacri- 
fices were  decreed  to  him  as  if  he  were  a  god. 
Unconscious  of  the  chasm  which  was  yawning 
at  his  feet  he  haughtily  accepted  the  honors 
and  adulation  of  men  who'  were  at  that  very 
moment  conspiring  for  his  death.  On  the 
fatal  "  Ides  of  March  "  (44  B.  c.)  he  was 
stricken  in  the  Senate  Chamber  by  the  hands 
of  his  friends,  and  the  great  Caesar  lay  dead  at 
the  feet  of  Pompey's  statue. 

The  world  had  reached  a  supreme  crisis  in 
its  existence.  Two  events — the  most  mo- 
mentous it  has  ever  known — were  at  hand: 
the  birth  of  a  Roman  Empire,  which  was  to 
perish  in  a  few  centuries,  after  a  life  of  amaz- 
ing splendor;  and  the  birth  of  a  spiritual  king- 
dom, which  would  never  die! 

Caesar's  nephew,  Octavius  Augustus,  by 
gradual  approaches  reached  the  goal  toward 
which  no  doubt  his  greater  uncle  was  moving. 
After  defeating  Brutus  and  Cassius  at  Philippl 
(42  B.  c.)  and  then  after  destroying  his  only 
competitor,  Antony,  at  Actium  (31  B.C.)  he 
assumed  the  imperial  purple  under  the  name 
of  Augustus.     The   title   sounded   harmless, 


28  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

but  its  wearer  had  founded  the  "  Roman  Em- 
pire." 

At  last  there  was  peace.  Spain  was  pacified, 
and  only  here  and  there  did  she  struggle  in  the 
grasp  of  the  Romans.  Augustus,  to  make 
sure  of  the  permanence  of  this  pacification, 
himself  went  to  the  Peninsula.  He  built 
cities  in  the  plains,  where  he  compelled  the 
stubborn  mountaineers  to  reside,  and  estab- 
lished military  colonies -in  the  places  they  had 
occupied. 

Saragossa  was  one  of  these  cities  in  the 
plains,  and  its  name  was  "  Caesar  Augusta," 
and  many  others  have  wandered  quite  as  far 
from  their  original  names,  which  may,  how- 
ever, still  be  traced. 

It  is  said  that  "  the  annals  of  the  happy  are 
brief."  Let  us  hope  that  poor  Spain,  so  long 
harried  by  fate,  was  happy  in  the  next  four 
hundred  years,  for  her  story  can  be  briefly 
told.  She  seemed  to  have  settled  into  a  state 
of  eternal  peace.  It  was  a  period  not  of 
external  events,  but  of  a  process — an  internal 
process  of  assimilation.  Spain,  in  every  de- 
partment of  its  life,  was  becoming  Latinized. 

A  people  of  rare  intellectual  activity  had 
been  united  to  the  life  of  Rome  at  the  mo- 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  29 

ment  of  her  greatest   intellectual   elevation. 
Was  it  strange  that  no  Roman  province  ever 
produced  so  long  a  list  of  historians,  poets, 
philosophers,  as  did  Southern  Spain  after  the 
Aug"ustan  conquest?     When  we  read  the  list 
of  great  Roman  authors  who  were  born  in 
Spain — the  three  Senecas,  one  of  whom,  the 
author  and  wit,  opened  his  veins  at  the  com- 
mand of  Nero  (65    a.  d.),  and  another,  the 
Gallio  of  the  book  of  Acts;  also  Lucan,  ]\Iar- 
tial,    and    Ouintilian,    when    we    read    these 
names   native   to   Spain,   it   seems   as   if  the 
source  of  inspiration  had  removed  from  the 
banks    of    the    Tiber    to    the    banks    of    the 
Guadalquivir. 

Nowhere  can  the  student  of  Roman  an- 
tiquities find  a  richer  field  than  in  Spain.  And 
not  only  that,  there  is  to-day  in  the  manners 
and  customs,  and  in  the  habits  of  the  peasan- 
try, a  pervading  atmosphere  of  the  classic  land 
which  adopted  them,  which  all  that  has  oc- 
curred since  has  been  powerless  to  efface, 
■while  the  language  of  Spain  is  Latin  to  its 
core.  Nor  is  this  strange  when  we  reflect 
that  they  were  under  this  powerful  influence 
for  a  period  as  long  as  from  Christopher 
Columbus  to  the  Spanish-American  Warl 


CHAPTER   V. 

In  the  history  of  nations  there  is  one  fact 
which  again  and  again  with  startling  uniform- 
ity repeats  itself.  The  rough,  strong  races 
from  the  north  menace,  and  at  last  rudely 
dominate  more  highly  civilized  but  less  hardy 
races  at  the  South,  to  the  ultimate  benefit  of 
both,  although  with  much  present  discom- 
fort to  the  conquered  race ! 

In  Greece  it  was  first  the  rude  Hellenes  who 
overran  the  Pelasgians.  And  again,  long 
after  that,  there  was  another  descent  of  fierce 
northern  barbarians, — the  Dorians  from 
Epirus, — who,  when  they  took  possession 
of  the  Peloponnesus  and  became  the  Spar- 
tans, infused  that  vigorous  strain  without 
which  the  history  of  Greece  might  have  been 
a  very  tame  affair.  In  the  British  Isles  it  was 
the  Picts  and  Scots,  who  would  have  done 
the  same  thing  with  England,  perhaps,  if  the 
Angles  and  Saxons  had  not  come  to  the  res- 
cue, while  Spain  had  her  own  Picts  and  Scots 
in  the  mountain  tribes  of  the  Pyrenees.     But 

30 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  31 

in  the  fifth  century  there  was  the  most  stu- 
pendous ilhistration  of  this  tendency,  when  all 
of  Southern  Europe  was  at  last  inundated  by 
that  northern  deluge,  and  the  effete  Roman 
Empire  was  effaced. 

The  process  had  been  a  gradual  one;  had 
commenced,  in  fact,  two  centuries  before  the 
overthrow  of  the  Roman  Republic.  But  not 
until  the  fourth  century,  after  the  wicked  old 
empire  had  espoused  Christianity,  did  it  be- 
come obvious  that  its  foundations  were  under- 
mined by  this  flood  of  barbarians.  In  410 
A.  D.,  when  the  West-Goths,  under  Alaric, 
entered  and  sacked  Rome,  her  power  was 
broken.  The  roots  no  longer  nourished  the 
distant  extremities  in  Britain  and  Gaul,  and  it 
was  only  a  question  of  time  when  these,  too, 
should  succumb  to  the  inflowing  tide. 

The  Ostro-Goths  —  or  East-Goths  —  in 
Northern  Italy,  and  the  Visigoths — or  West- 
Goths — in  Gaul,  were  setting  up  kingdoms  of 
their  own,  under  a  Roman  protectorate.  The 
long  period  of  peace  in  Spain  was  broken. 
The  Pyrenees,  with  their  warlike  tribes,  de- 
fended her  for  a  time;  but  the  Suevi  and  the 
Vandals — the  latter  a  companion  tribe  of  the 
Goths — had  found  an  easier  entrance  by  the 


3-2  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

sea  on  the  east.  They  flowed  down  toward  the 
south,  and  from  thence  across  to  the  north- 
ern coast  of  Africa,  which  they  colonized, 
leaving  a  memorial  in  Spain,  in  the  lovely 
province  of  Andalusia,  which  was  named  after 
them — Vandaliisia.  But  before  the  sacking 
of  Rome  a  wave  of  the  Gothic  invasion  had 
overflowed  the  Pyrenees,  and  Northern  Spain 
had  become  a  part  of  the  Gothic  kingdom  in 
Gaul,  with  the  city  of  Toulouse  as  its  head. 

A  century  of  contact  with  Roman  civiliza- 
tion had  wrought  great  changes  in  this 
conquering  race.  They  were  untamed  in 
strength,  but  reahzed  the  value  of  the  civilities 
of  life,  and  of  intellectual  superiority;  and 
even  strove  to  acquire  some  of  the  arts  and 
accomplishments  of  the  race  they  were  in- 
vading. They  were  not  yet  acknowledged 
entire  masters  of  Gaul  and  northern  Spain. 
On  condition  of  military  service  they  had  un- 
disputed possession  of  their  territory,  with 
their  own  king,  laws,  and  customs,  but  were 
nominally  subjects  of  the  Roman  Emperor, 
Honorius. 

Their  attitude  toward  the  Romans  at  this 
period  cannot  better  be  told  than  in  the  words 
of  Ataulf  himself  (or  Ataulfus,  or  Adolphus), 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN,  35 

whose  interesting  story  will  be  briefly  related. 
He  says: 

"  It  was  my  first  wish  to  destroy  the  Roman 
name  and  erect  in  its  place  a  Gothic  Empire, 
taking  to  myself  the  place  and  the  powers  of 
Caesar  Augustus.  But  when  experience 
taught  me  that  the  untamable  barbarism  of 
the  Goths  would  not  suffer  them  to  live  under 
the  sway  of  law,  and  that  the  abolition  of  the 
institutions  on  which  the  state  rested  would 
involve  the  ruin  of  the  state  itself,  I  chose  in- 
stead the  glory  of  renewing  and  maintaining 
by  Gothic  strength  the  fame  of  Rome;  pre- 
ferring to  go  down  to  posterity  as  the  restorer 
of  that  Roman  power  which  it  was  beyond  my 
power  to  replace." 

These  are  not  the  words  of  a  barbarian; 
although  by  the  corrupt  and  courtly  nobles  in 
Rome  he  was  considered  one;  but  no  doubt 
he  towered  far  above  the  barbarous  host 
whom  he  helped  to  lead  into  Rome  in  the 
year  410  a.  d. 

Ataulf  was  the  brother-in-law  of  Alaric,  and 
succeeded  that  great  leader  in  authority  after 
his  death  (410  a.  d.). 

At  the  time  of  the  sacking  of  Rome  this 
Gothic  prince  fell  in  love  with  Placidia,  the 


34  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

sister  of  the  Emperor  Honorius;  and  after  the 
fashion  of  his  people,  carried  her  away  as  his 
captive;  not  an  unwiUing  one,  we  suspect,  for 
we  learn  of  her  great  devotion  to  her  brave, 
strong  wooer,  with  blond  hair  and  blue  eyes. 
Ataulf  took  his  fair  prize  to  the  city  of  Nar- 
bonne  in  southern  France,  and  made  her  his 
Queen.  But  when  Constantius,  a  disap- 
pointed Roman  lover  of  Placidia's,  instigated 
Honorius  to  send  an  army  against  him  and 
his  Goths,  he  withdrew  into  Spain,  and  estab- 
lished his  court  with  its  rude  splendor  in  the 
ancient  city  of  Barcelona. 

He  seems  to  have  had  not  an  easy  task  be- 
tween the  desire  to  please  his  haughty  Roman 
bride  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  repel  the 
charge  of  his  people  that  he  was  becoming 
efifeminate  and  Romanized;  and,  finally,  so 
jealous  did  they  become  of  her  influence  that 
Ataulf  was  assassinated  in  the  presence  of  his 
wife,  all  his  children  butchered,  and  the 
proud  Placidia  compelled  to  walk  barefoot 
through  the  streets  of  Barcelona. 

Constantius,  the  faithful  Roman  lover, 
came  with  an  army  and  carried  back  to  Rome 
the  royal  widow,  who  married  him  and  became 
the  mother  of  Valentinian  HI.,  who  succeeded 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  35 

his  uncle  Honoriiis  as  Emperor  of  Rome  in 
425  A.  D.,  under  the  regency  of  Placidia  dur- 
ing his  infancy. 

This  romance,  lying  at  the  very  root  of  a 
Gothic  dynasty  in  Spain,  marks  the  earliest 
beginnings  of  a  line  of  Visigoth  kings. 
Ataulf's  successor  removed  his  court  to  Tou- 
louse in  France,  and  Spain  for  many  years 
remained  only  an  outlying  province  of  the 
Gothic  kingdom;  her  turbulent  northern 
tribes  refusing  to  accept  or  to  mingle  with 
the  strange  intruders.  When  driven  by  the 
Romans  from  their  mountain  fastnesses 
the  Basques,  many  of  them,  were  at  that 
time  dispersed  through  southern  and  cen- 
tral France;  which  accounts  for  the  pres- 
ence of  that  race  in  France,  before  alluded  to. 

In  the  second  half  of  the  fifth  century  At- 
tila,  "  the  Scourge  of  God,"  swept  down  upon 
Europe  with  his  Huns, — mysterious,  terrible, 
as  a  fire  out  of  heaven,  and  more  like  an  army 
of  demons  than  men, — destroying  city  after 
city,  and  driving  the  people  before  them,  until 
they  came  to  Orleans.  There  they  met  the 
combined  Roman  and  Gothic  armies.  The- 
odoric,  the  Visigoth  king,  was  killed  on  the 
battlefield.     But  to  him,  and  to  the  Roman 


36  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

general  vEtins,  belongs  the  glory  of  the  defeat 
of  the  Huns  (451  a.  d.). 

It  was  Evaric,  the  son  of  this  Theodoric, 
who  finally  completed  the  conquest  of  the 
Spanish  Peninsula,  and  with  him  really  com- 
mences the  line  of  Visigoth  kings  in  Spain, 
and  the  conversion  of  that  country  into  a 
Gothic  empire,*  entirely  independent  of 
Rome. 

The  German  Franks,  under  Clovis,  estab- 
lished their  kingdom  in  Gaul  481  A.  D. 
The  Angles  and  Saxons  in  446  A.  D.  did 
the  same  in  Britain.  The  Ostrogoths  had 
their  own  kingdom  in  northern  Italy  and 
southern  Gaul  (Burgundy).  So,  with  the 
Visigoths  ruling  in  Spain,  the  "  northern  del- 
uge "  had  in  the  fifth  century  practically  sub- 
merged the  whole  of  Europe,  and  above  its 
dark  waters  showed  only  the  somber  wreck  of 
a  Roman  empire. 

From  this  fusing  of  Roman  and  Teutonic 
races  there  were  to  arise  two  types  of  civiliza- 
tion, utterly  different  in  kind,  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  the  Latin.  In  one  the  prevailing 
element,  after  the  fusing  was  complete,  was 

*  The  famous  Gothic  code  established  by  him  still   linger 
in  much  of  Spanish  jurisprudence. 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  37 

to  be  the  Teutonic ;  in  the  other,  the  Roman. 
Herein  hes  the  difference  between  these  two 
great  divisions  of  the  human  family,  and  this 
is  the  germinal  fact  in  the  war  raging  to-day 
between  Spain  and  the  United  States.  It  is 
a  difference  created  not  by  the  mastery  of 
arms,  but  by  the  more  efficient  mastery  of 
ideas. 

When  the  Angles  and  Saxons  conquered 
Britain,  after  a  Roman  occupation  of  over 
three  hundred  years,  they  swept  it  clean  of 
Roman  laws,  literature,  and  civilization. 
Untamed  pagan  barbarians  though  they 
w^ere,  they  had  fine  instincts  and  simple  ideals 
of  society  and  government,  and  they  cast  out 
the  corrupt  old  empire,  root  and  branch. 

The  Visigoths  in  Spain,  more  enlightened 
than  they,  already  Christianized,  and,  perhaps, 
even  superior  in  intelligence,  were  content  in 
the  words  of  Ataulf — "  to  renew  and  maintain 
by  Gothic  strength  the  fame  of  Rome."  So 
they  built  upon  the  ruins  of  decaying  institu- 
tions of  a  corrupt  civilization,  a  kingdom 
which  flourished  with  the  enormous  vitality 
drawn  from  the  conquering  race,  which  race 
was  in  turn  conquered  by  Roman  ideals. 

So,  in  the  conflict  now  existing  between 


38      A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

Spain  and  the  United  States,  we  see  the  Span- 
iard, the  child  of  the  Romans;  valorous,  pic- 
turesque, cruel,  versed  in  strategic  arts,  and 
with  a  savor  of  archaic  wickedness  which  be- 
longs to  a  corrupt  old  age.  In  the  American 
we  see  the  child  of  the  simple  Angles  and  Sax- 
ons, no  less  brave,  but  just,  and  with  an 
enthusiasm  and  confiding  integrity  which 
seems  to  endow  him  with  an  imperishable 
youth. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  story  of  Ulfilas,  who  Christianized  the 
pagan  Goths  in  the  last  half  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, is  really  the  first  chapter  not  alone  in  the 
history  of  Gothic  civilization  but  in  that  of 
the  German  and  English  literatures;  which, 
\vith  their  vast  riches,  had  their  origin  in  the 
strange  achievement  of  Ulfilas.  He  had, 
while  a  boy,  been  captured  by  some  Goths  off 
the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  and  was  called  by 
them  "  Wulf-ilas  "  (little  wolf).  In  his  de- 
sire to  translate  the  Bible  to  his  captors 
"  Wulf-ilas  reduced  the  Gothic  language  to 
writing.  He  had  first  to  create  an  alpha- 
bet; taking  twenty-two  Roman  letters,  and 
inventing  two  more:  the  letter  w,  and  still 
another  for  th.  So  while,  after  Constantine, 
the  Christian  religion  was  being  adopted  by 
the  Roman  Empire,  and  while  its  simple  dog- 
mas were  being  discussed  and  refined  into  a 
complicated  and  intricate  system  by  men 
versed  in  Greek  philosophy,  and  then  formu- 

39 


4°  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

latecl  by  minds  trained  in  logic  and  rhetoric, 
the  same  rehgion  was  being  spelled  out  in 
simple  fashion  by  the  Goths  in  central  Europe 
from  the  book  translated  for  them  by  Ulfilas. 

All  they  found  was  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
the  beloved  son  of  God  and  the  Saviour  of  the 
world;  that  he  was  the  long-promised 
Messiah,  and  to  believe  in  him  and  to  follow 
his  teachings  was  salvation.  They  knew 
nothing  of  the  Trinity  nor  of  any  theologic 
subtleties,  and  this  was  the  simple  faith  which 
the  Goths  carried  with  them  into  the  lands 
they  conquered. 

The  Romans,  who  had  spent  three  centuries 
in  burning  Christians  and  trying  to  obliterate 
the  religion  of  Christ,  were  now  its  jealous 
guardians.  They  considered  this  "  Arian- 
ism,"  as  it  was  called,  a  blasphemous  heresy, 
so  shocking  that  they  refused  to  call  it  Chris- 
tianity at  all.  The  history  of  the  first  century 
of  the  Gothic  kingdom  in  Spain  was  therefore 
mainly  that  of  the  deadly  strife  between  Arian- 
ism  and  Catholicism,  or  orthodoxy.  The 
Goths  could  not  discuss,  for  they  were  utterly 
unable  to  understand  even  the  terms  under 
discussion;  but  they  could  fight  and  lay  down 
their  lives  for  the  faith  which  had  done  so 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPA  117.  41 

much  for  them;  and  this  they  did  freely  and 
fiercely. 

So  the  simple  Gothic  people  were  bewil- 
dered by  finding  themselves  in  the  presence  of 
a  Christianity  incomprehensible  to  them;  a 
complicated,  highly  organized  social  order, 
equally  incomprehensible;  and  a  science  and  a 
literature  of  which  they  knew  nothing.  They 
might  struggle  for  a  while  against  this  tide  of 
superiority,  but  one  by  one  they  entered  the 
fascinating  portals  of  learning  and  of  art,  ac- 
cepted the  dogmas  of  learned  prelates,  and  a 
few  generations  were  sufficient  to  make  them 
meek  disciples  of  the  older  civilization. 

The  Spanish  language  fairly  illustrates  the 
result  from  this  incongruous  mingling  of 
Roman  and  Gothic.  It  is  said  to  be  a  lan- 
guage of  Latin  roots  with  a  Teutonic  gram- 
mar. 

The  Goths  laid  rough  hands  on  the  speech 
they  consented  to  use,  and  the  smooth, 
sonorous  Latin  was  strangely  broken  and 
mixed  with  Gothic  words  and  idioms;  yet  it 
became  one  of  the  most  copious,  flexible,  and 
picturesque  of  languages,  with  a  literature 
marvelously  rich  and  beautiful. 

In  precisely  the  same  way  was  the  classic 


4*  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN; 

old  ruin  of  a  Roman  state  re-enforced  with  a 
rough  Gothic  framework,  and  after  centuries 
have  hidden  the  joints  and  the  scars  with 
mosses  and  verdure,  we  have  a  picturesque 
and  beautiful  Spain! 

But  barbarous  kings  were  fighting  other 
things  besides  heresy.  There  were  rebellions 
to  put  down;  there  were  remnants  of  Sueves 
and  of  Roman  power  to  drive  out,  and  there 
were  always  the  fierce  mountain  tribes  who 
never  mingled  with  any  conquerors,  nor  had 
ever  surrendered  to  anything  but  the  Catholic 
faith. 

There  were  intermarriages  between  the 
three  Gothic  kingdoms,  in  Burgundy,  Gaul, 
and  Spain,  and  the  history  of  some  of  these 
royal  families  shows  what  wild  passions  still 
raged  among  the  Goths,  and  what  atrocities 
were  strangely  mingled  with  ambitious  proj- 
ects and  religion. 

Athanagild,  one  of  the  Visigoth  kings,  gave 
his  daughter  Brunhilde  in  marriage  to  the 
King  of  the  Franks  in  Gaul.  The  story  of 
this  terrible  Queen,  stained  with  every  crime, 
and  accused  of  the  death  of  no  less  than  ten 
kings,  comes  to  a  fitting  end  when,  we  are 
told,  that  in  her  wicked  old  age  she  was  tied 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  43 

to  the  tail  of  an  unbroken  horse  and  dragged 
over  the  stones  of  Paris  (600  A.  D.). 

At  this  time  Leovigild  (570-587).  the  Visi- 
goth King,  was  ruhng  Spain  with  a  strong 
hand.  He  had  assumed  more  splendor  than 
any  of  his  predecessors.  He  had  erected  a 
magnificent  throne  in  his  palace  at  Toledo, 
and  his  head,  wearing  the  royal  diadem,  was 
placed  on  Spanish  coins,  which  may  still  be 
seen.  A  daughter  of  the  terrible  Brunhilde, 
the  Princess  Ingunda,  came  over  from  France 
to  become  the  wife  of  Ermingild,  the  son  of 
the  great  King  Leovigild,  and  heir  to  his 
throne. 

All  went  smoothly  until  it  was  discovered 
that  this  fair  Princess  was  a  Catholic,  and  was 
artfully  plotting  to  win  her  husband  over  to 
her  faith  from  the  faith  of  his  fathers — 
Arianism. 

Although  Catholicism  had  made  great  in- 
roads among  their  people,  never  before  had  it 
invaded  the  royal  household.  And  when  his 
son  declared  his  intention  to  desert  their  an- 
cient creed  there  commenced  a  terrible  conflict 
between  father  and  son,  which  finally  led  to 
Ermingild's  open  rebellion,  and  at  last  to  his 
being  beheaded  by  his  father's  order.    But  this 


44  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

crime  against  nature  was  in  vain.  Arianism 
had  reached  the  Hmit  of  its  Hfe  in  Spain. 
Upon  the  death  of  Leovigild,  his  second  son, 
Recared  (587-601),  succeeded  to  the  throne," 
and  one  of  his  first  acts  was  to  abjure  the  old 
faith  of  the  Gothic  people,  and  Catholicism  be- 
came the  established  religion  of  Spain. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Toledo,  the  capital  of  the  Visigoth  Kings,  is 
the  city  about  which  cluster  the  richest  memo- 
ries of  Spain  in  her  heroic  age.  When  Leo- 
vigild  removed  his  capital  there  from  Seville 
in  the  sixth  century,  it  was  already  an  ancient 
Jewish  city,  about  which  tradition  had  long 
busied  itself.  To-day,  as  it  sits  on  the  sum- 
mit of  a  barren  hill,  one  looks  in  vain  for  traces 
of  its  ancient  Gothic  splendor.  But  the  spot 
where  now  stands  a  beautiful  cathedral  is  hal- 
lowed by  a  wonderful  legend,  which  Murillo 
made  the  subject  of  one  of  his  great  paintings. 
It  is  said  that  the  Apostle  St.  James  founded 
on  that  very  spot  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria; 
and  that  the  Virgin,  in  recognition  of  the 
dedication  to  her,  descended  from  heaven  to 
present  its  Bishop,  Ildofonso,  with  a  mar- 
velous chasuble.  In  proof  of  this  miracle, 
doubting  visitors  are  still  shown  the  marks  of 
Mary's  footprint  upon  a  stair  in  the  chapel! 
However  this  may  be,  it  is  on  this  very  spot 

4S 


46  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

that  King  Recared  formally  abjured  Arianism; 
and  preserved  in  a  cloister  of  the  cathedral 
may  still  be  seen  the  "  Consecration  Stone," 
which  reads:  that  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria, 
— built  probably  on  the  foundation  of  the 
older  church, — was  consecrated  under  "  King 
Recared  the  Catholic,  587  a.  d."  It  also  tells 
of  the  councils  of  the  Spanish  Church  held 
there^ — at  one  of  which  councils  was  the 
famous  canon  which  decreed  that  all  future 
Kings  must  swear  they  would  show  no  mercy 
to  "  that  accursed  people  " — meaning  the 
Jews.  It  was  these  very  Jews  who  had 
brought  commercial  success  and  created  the 
enormous  wealth  of  the  city,  from  which  it 
was  now  the  duty  of  the  pious  Visigoth  Kings 
to  harry  and  hunt  them  as  if  they  were  fright- 
ened deer. 

The  Visigoth  monarchy,  although  in  many 
cases  hereditary,  was  in  fact  elective.  And 
the  student  of  Spanish  history  will  not  find  an 
orderly  royal  succession  as  in  England  and 
France.  Disputes  regarding  the  succession 
were  not  infrequent,  and  sometimes  there  will 
occur  an  interval  with  apparently  no  king  at 
all,  followed  by  another  period  when  there  are 
two — one  ruling  in  the  north  and  another  in 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAHV.  47 

the  south.  "  The  King  is  dead — long  live  the 
King! "  might  do  for  France,  but  not  for 
Spain. 

During  one  of  these  periods  of  uncertainty, 
in  the  latter  half  of  the  seventh  century,  it  is 
said  that  Leo,  a  holy  man  (afterward  Pope), 
was  told  in  a  dream  that  the  man  who  must 
wear  the  crown  w^as  then  a  laborer,  living  in 
the  west,  and  that  his  name  was  Wamba. 
They  traveled  in  search  of  this  man  almost 
to  the  borders  of  Portugal,  and  there  they 
found  the  future  candidate  for  the  throne 
plowing  in  the  field.  The  messengers,  bow- 
ing before  the  plowman,  informed  him  that 
he  had  been  selected  as  King  of  Spain. 

Wamba  laughed,  and  said,  "  Yes,  I  shall  be 
King  of  Spain  when  my  pole  puts  forth 
leaves." 

Instantly  the  bare  pole  began  to  bud,  and 
in  a  few  moments  was  covered  with  verdure! 

In  vain  did  Wamba  protest.  What  could  a 
poor  man  do  in  the  face  of  such  a  miracle, 
and  with  a  Spanish  Duke  pressing  a  poniard 
against  his  breast,  and  telling  him  to  choose 
on  the  instant  between  a  throne  and  a  tomb! 

The  unhappy  Wamba  suffered  himself  to 
be  borne  in  triumph  to  Toledo,  and  there  to 


48      A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

be  croAvned.  And  a  very  wise  and  excellent 
King  did  he  make.  He  seemed  fully  equal 
to  the  difficult  demands  of  his  new  position. 
A  rebellion,  fomented  by  an  ambitious  Duke 
Paul,  who  gathered  about  his  standard  all  the 
banished  Jews,  was  a  very  formidable  affair. 
But  Wamba  put  it  down  with  a  firm  hand,  and 
then,  when  it  was  over,  treated  the  conspira- 
tors and  rebels  with  marvelous  clemency. 
When  his  reign  was  concluded  he  left  a  record 
of  wisdom  and  sagacity  rare  in  those  days,  in 
any  land. 

His  taking  off  the  stage  was  as  remarkable 
as  his  coming  on.  He  fell  into  a  trance 
(October  14,  680),  and  after  long  insensibility 
it  was  concluded  that  the  King  was  dying. 
According  to  a  custom  of  the  period  Wamba's 
head  was  shaved,  and  he  was  clothed  in  the 
habit  of  a  monk.  The  meaning  of  this  was 
that  if  he  died,  he  w^ould,  as  was  fitting,  pass 
into  the  Divine  presence  in  penitential  garb. 
But  if,  peradventure,  the  patient  survived,  he 
was  pledged  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  life  in 
that  holy  vocation,  renouncing  every  worldly 
advantage. 

So  when,  after  a  few  hours,  Wamba,  in  per- 
fect health,  opened  his  eyes,  he  found  that  in- 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  49 

stead  of  a  King  he  was  transformed  into  a 
Monk! 

Whether  this  was  a  cunning  device  of  this 
philosophic  King  to  lay  down  the  burdens 
which  wearied  him,  and  spend  the  rest  of  his 
days  in  tranquillity;  or  whether  it  was  the  work 
of  the  Royal  Prince,  who  joyfully  assumed  the 
diadem  which  he  had  so  unwillingly  worn, 
nobody  knows.  But  Wamba  passed  the  re- 
mainder of  his  days  in  a  monastery  near 
Burgos,  and  the  ambitious  Ervigius  reigned 
as  his  successor. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Visigoth  kingdom,  which  had  stood 
for  three  centuries,  had  passed  its  meridian. 
It  had  created  a  magnificent  background  for 
historic  Spain,  and  a  heritage  which  would  be 
the  pride  and  glory  of  the  proudest  nation  in 
Europe.  The  Goths  had  come  as  only  rude 
intruders  into  that  country;  but  to  be 
descended  from  the  Visigoth  Kings  was  here- 
after to  be  the  proudest  boast  of  the  Spaniard. 
And  the  man  who  could  make  good  such 
claim  to  distinction  was  a  Hidalgo;  or  in  its 
original  form,  hijo-de-algo — son  of  somebody. 

But  many  generations  of  peace  had  im- 
paired the  rugged  strength  and  softened  the 
sinews  of  the  nation.  It  was  the  beginning  of 
the  end  when,  at  the  close  of  the  seventh  cen- 
tury, there  were  two  rival  claimants  to  the 
throne;  and  while  the  vicious  and  cruel 
Witiza  reigned  at  Toledo,  Roderick,  the  son 
of  Theodofred,  also  reigned  in  Andalusia. 
There  had  been  a  long  struggle,  during  which 

so 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  $1 

it  is  said  that  Theodofred's  eyes  had  been  put 
out  by  his  victorious  rival,  and  his  son  Rod- 
erick had  obtained  assistance  from  the  Greek 
Emperor  at  Byzantium  in  asserting  his  own 
claims.  He  succeeded  in  driving  Witiza  out 
of  the  countr}';  and  in  709, — "  the  last  of  the 
Goths," — was  crowned  at  Toledo,  King  of 
all  Spain. 

But  the  struggle  was  not  over;  and  it  was 
about  to  lead  to  a  result  which  is  one  of  the 
most  momentous  in  the  history,  not  alone  of 
Spain, — nor  yet  of  Europe, — but  of  Christen- 
dom. Witiza  was  dead,  but  his  two  sons,  with 
a  formidable  following,  were  still  trying  to 
work  the  ruin  of  Roderick.  A  certain  Count 
Julian,  who,  on  account  of  his  daughter  Flo- 
rinda,  had  his  own  wrongs  to  avenge,  accepted 
the  leadership  of  these  rebels.  The  power  of 
the  Visigoths  had  extended  across  the  nar- 
row strait  (cut  by  the  Phenicians)  over  to  the 
opposite  shore,  where  IMorocco  seems  to  be 
reaching  out  in  vain  endeavor  to  touch  the 
land  from  which  she  w^as  long  ago  severed; 
and  there,  at  Tangiers,  this  arch-traitor  laid 
his  plans  and  matured  the  scheme  of  revenge 
and  treachery  which  had  such  tremendous  re- 
sults for  Europe.     .With  an  appearance  of  per- 


52  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

feet  loyalty  he  parted  from  Roderick,  who 
unsuspectingly  asked  him  to  bring  him  some 
hawks  from  Africa  when  he  returned.  Bow- 
ing, he  said:  "Sire,  I  will  bring  you  such 
hawks  as  never  were  seen  in  Spain  before." 

For  one  hundred  years  an  unprecedented 
wave  of  conquest  had  been  moving  from  Asia 
toward  the  west.  Mahommedanism,  which 
was  destined  to  become  the  scourge  of  Chris- 
tendom, had  subjected  Syria,  Mesopotamia, 
Egypt,  and  northern  Africa,  until  it  reached 
Ceuta — the  companion  Pillar  to  Gibraltar  on 
the  African  coast. 

At  this  point  the  Goths  had  stood,  as  a  pro- 
tecting wall  beyond  which  the  Asiatic  deluge 
could  not  flow. 

Count  Julian  was  the  trusted  military 
commander  of  the  Gothic  garrisons  in  Mo- 
rocco, as  Musa,  the  oft-defeated  Saracen 
leader,  knew  to  his  cost.  As  this  Musa 
was  one  day  looking  with  covetous  eyes 
across  at  the  Spanish  Peninsula,  he  was 
suddenly  surprised  by  a  visit  from  Count 
Julian;  and  still  more  astonished  when  that 
commander  offered  to  surrender  to  him  the 
Gothic  strongholds  Tangier,  Arsilla,  and 
Ceuta  in  return  for  the  assistance  of  the  Sara- 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  SZ 

cen  army  in  the  cause  of  Witiza's  sons  against 
Roderick. 

Amazed  at  such  colossal  treason,  Musa  re- 
ferred Count  Julian  to  his  master  the  Khalif, 
at  Damascus,  who  at  once  accepted  his  infa- 
mous proposition.  In  Spanish  legend  and 
history  this  man  is  always  designated  as  The 
Traitor,  as  if  standing  alone  and  on  a  pin- 
nacle among  the  men  who  have  betrayed  their 
countries. 

Musa,  half  doubting,  sent  a  preliminary 
force  of  about  five  hundred  Moors  under  a 
chief  named  Tarif,  to  the  opposite  coast;  and 
the  Moors  found,  as  was  promised,  that  they 
might  range  at  their  own  will  and  pleasure  in 
that  earthly  paradise  of  Andalusia.  The 
name  of  this  Mussulman  chief,  Tarif,  was 
given  to  the  spot  first  touched  by  the  feet  of 
the  Mahommedan,  which  was  called  Tarif  a; 
and  as  Tarifa  was  afterward  the  place  where 
customs  were  collected,  the  word  tariff  is  an 
imperishable  memorial  of  that  event.  In  like 
manner  Gibraltar  was  named  Gebel-al-Tarik, 
(Mountain  of  Tarik)  after  the  leader  bearing 
that  name,  who  was  sent  later  by  Musa  with  a 
larger  force;  which  name  has  been  gradually 
changed  to  its  present  form — Gibraltar. 


54  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

Poor  King  Roderick,  while  still  fighting  to 
maintain  his  own  right  to  the  crown  he  wore, 
learned  with  dismay  that  his  country  was  in- 
vaded by  a  horde  of  people  from  the  African 
coast.  Theodemir  wrote  to  him:  "  So 
strange  is  their  appearance  that  we  might  take 
them  for  inhabitants  of  the  sky.  Send  me  all 
the  troops  you  can  collect,  without  delay." 
The  hawks  promised  by  Count  Julian  had 
arrived ! 

The  hour  of  doom  had  sounded  for  the  last 
King  of  the  Visigoths,  and  for  his  kingdom. 
There  is  a  legend  that  a  mysterious  tower  ex- 
isted near  Toledo,  which  was  built  by  Hercu- 
les, soon  after  Adam,  with  the  command  that 
no  king  or  lord  of  Spain  should  ever  seek  to 
know  what  it  contained;  instead  of  that  it  was 
the  duty  of  each  King  to  put  a  new  lock  upon 
its  mysterious  portal. 

It  is  said  that  Roderick,  perhaps  in  his  ex- 
tremity, resolved  to  disobey  the  command, 
and  to  discover  the  secret  hidden  in  the  En- 
chanted Tower.  In  a  jeweled  shrine  in  the 
very  heart  of  the  structure  he  came  at  last  to 
a  coffer  of  silver,  "  right  subtly  wrought,"  and 
far  inside  of  that  he  reached  the  final  mystery, 
— only  this, — a  white   cloth   folded  between 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  55 

two  pieces  of  copper.  With  trembling  eager- 
ness Roderick  opened  and  found  painted 
thereon  men  with  turbans,  carrying  banners, 
with  swords  strung  around  their  necks,  and 
bows  behind  them,  slung  at  the  saddle-bow. 
Over  these  figures  was  written:  "When  this 
cloth  shall  be  opened,  men  appareled  like 
these  shall  conquer  Spain,  and  be  the  lords 
thereof." 

Such  is  the  picturesque  legend.  Men  with 
"  turbans  and  banners  and  swords  slung  about 
their  necks,"  were  assuredly  now  in  Andalusia, 
led  by  Tarik,  who  had  literally  burned  his 
ships  behind  him,  and  then  told  his  followers 
to  choose  between  victory  or  death. 

The  two  armies  faced  each  other  at  a  spot 
near  Cadiz.  It  is  said  that  Roderick,  the  de- 
generate successor  of  Alaric,  went  into  battle 
in  a  robe  of  white  silk  embroidered  with  gold, 
sitting  on  a  car  of  ivory,  drawn  by  white 
mules.  Tarik's  men,  who  were  fighting  for 
victory  or  Paradise,  overwhelmed  the  Goths; 
Roderick,  in  his  flight,  was  drowned  in  the 
Guadalquivir,  and  his  diadem  of  pearls  and  his 
embroidered  robe  were  sent  to  Damascus  as 
trophies. 

Count  Julian  urged  that  the  victory  be  im- 


5  6  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

mediately  followed  up  by  Musa  before  there 
was  time  for  the  Spaniards  to  rally.  One 
after  another  the  cities  of  Toledo,  Cordova, 
and  Granada  capitulated,  the  persecuted  Jews 
flocking  to  the  new  standard  and  aiding  in  the 
conquest  of  their  oppressors. 

As  well  might  one  have  held  back  the  At- 
lantic from  rushing  through  that  canal  upon 
the  isthmus,  as  to  have  stayed  the  inflowing  of 
the  Saracens  through  the  breach  made  by 
"the  Traitor,"  Count  Julian!  In  less  than 
two  years  Spain  was  a  conquered  province, 
rendering  allegiance  to  the  Khalif  at  Damas- 
cus, and  the  Moor, — as  the  followers  of  the 
Prophet  in  Morocco  were  called, — reigned  in 
Toledo. 

It  was  in  the  year  412  that  Ataulfus,  with 
his  haughty  bride  Placidia,  had  established  his 
Court  at  Barcelona,  and  Romanized  Spain 
became  Gothic  Spain.  In  711 — just  three 
centuries  later — the  Visigoth  kingdom  had 
disappeared  as  utterly  beneath  the  Saracen 
flood  as  had  its  ill-fated  King  Roderick  under 
the  waters  of  the  Guadalquivir;  and  fastened 
upon  Christian  Europe  was  a  Mahommedan 
empire;  an  empire  which  all  the  combined 
powers  of  that  continent  have  never  since  been 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  57 

able  entirely  to  dislodge.  From  that  ill- 
omened  day  in  709,  when  Tarif  set  foot  on  the 
Spanish  coast,  to  this  June  of  1898,  the 
Maliommedan  has  been  in  Europe;  and  re- 
mains to-day,  a  scourge  and  a  blight  in  the 
territory  upon  which  his  cruel  grasp  still 
lingers. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Tarik  and  his  twelve  thousand  Berbers,* 
or  Moors,  had  at  one  stroke  won  the  Spanish 
Peninsula.  The  banner  of  the  Prophet  waved 
over  every  one  of  the  ancient  and  famous 
cities  in  Andalusia,  and  the  turbaned  army 
had  marched  through  the  stubborn  north  as 
far  as  the  Spanish  border.  As  Musa,  intoxi- 
cated with  success,  stood  at  last  upon  the 
Pyrenees,  he  saw  before  him  a  vision  of  a  sub- 
jugated Europe.  The  banner  of  the  Prophet 
should  wave  from  the  Pyrenees  to  the  Baltic! 
A  mosque  should  stand  where  St.  Peter's  now 
stands  in  Rome!  So,  step  by  step,  the 
Moslems  pressed  up  into  Gaul,  and  in  732 
their  army  had  reached  Tours. 

It  was  a  moment  of  supreme  peril  for  Chris- 
tendom. But,  happily,  the  Franks  had  what 
the  Goths  had  not — a  great  leader.  Charles 
Martel, — then  Maire  dii  Palais,  and  virtually 
King  of  France,  instead  of  the  feeble  Lothair, 

*  The  old  Phenician  name  for  the  North  African  tribes, 
derived  from  the  word  Iberi. 

s8 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  59 

— led  his  Franks  into  what  was  to  be  one  of 
the  most  decisive  of  the  world's  battles;  a  bat- 
tle which  would  determine  whether  Europe 
should  be  Christian  or  Mahommedan. 

The  tide  of  infidel  invasion  had  reached  its 
limits.  The  strong  right  arm  of  Charles  dealt 
such  ponderous  blows  that  the  Moslems  broke 
in  confusion,  and  this  savior  of  Christendom 
was  thenceforth  known  as  Charles  Martel: 
"  Karl  of  the  Hammer." 

After  this  crushing  disaster  at  Tours  the 
jMoors  realized  that  they  were  not  invincible. 
Their  vaulting  ambition  did  not  again  try  to 
overleap  the  Pyrenees;  and  they  addressed 
themselves  to  settling  affairs  in  their  new 
territory. 

It  has  been  wisely  said  that  if  the  Mahom- 
medan state  had  been  confined  within  the 
borders  of  Arabia,  it  would  speedily  have  col- 
lapsed. Islam  became  a  world-wide  religion 
when  it  clothed  itself  with  armor,  and  became 
a  church  militant.  It  was  conquest  which 
saved  the  faith  of  the  Prophet.  In  its  home 
in  Asia  the  Empire  of  Mahommed  was  com- 
posed of  hostile  tribes  and  clans,  and  as  it 
moved  westward  it  gathered  up  Syrians, 
Egyptians,  and  the  Berbers  on  the  African 


6o  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

coast,  who,  when  Morocco  was  reached,  were 
known  as  Moors.  This  strange,  heteroge- 
neous mass  of  humanity,  all  nourished  from 
Arabia,  was  held  together  by  two  things:  the 
Koran  and  the  szvord. 

When  conquest  was  exchanged  for  peace- 
ful possession,  all  the  internecine  jealousies, 
the  tribal  feuds,  and  old  hatreds  burst  forth, 
and  the  first  fifty  years  of  Moorish  rule  in 
Spain  was  a  period  of  internal  strife  and  dis- 
order— Arabs  and  Moors  were  jealously  try- 
ing to  undermine  each  other;  while  the  Arabs 
themselves  were  torn  by  factions  representing 
rival  clans  in  Damascus. 

But  a  singular  clemency  was  shown  toward 
the  conquered  Spaniards,  They  were  per- 
mitted to  retain  their  own  law  and  judges,  and 
their  own  governors  administered  the  affairs 
of  the  districts  and  collected  the  taxes.  The 
rule  of  the  conquering  race  bore  upon  the  peo- 
ple actually  less  heavily  than  had  the  old 
Gothic  rule.  Jews  and  Christians  alike  were 
free  to  worship  whom  or  what  they  pleased; 
but,  at  the  same  time,  great  benefits  were  be- 
stowed upon  those  who  would  accept  the 
religion  of  the  Prophet.  The  slave  class, 
which  was  very  large  and  had  suffered  terrible 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  6 1 

cruelties  under  its  old  masters,  was  treated 
with  especial  mildness  and  humanity.  There 
was  a  simple  road  to  freedom  opened  to  every 
man.  He  had  only  to  say,  ''  There  is  one 
God,  and  Mahommed  is  his  Prophet,"  and  on 
the  instant  he  became  a  freeman ! 

Such  gentle  proselytizing  as  this  speedily 
won  converts,  not  alone  among  slaves  but 
from  all  classes.  The  pacification  of  Spain  by 
the  Romans  had  required  centuries;  while 
only  a  few  years  sufficed  to  make  of  the  van- 
quished in  the  southern  provinces,  a  contented 
and  almost  happy  people;  not  only  reconciled, 
but  even  glad  of  "  the  change  of  masters. 
Never  was  Andalusia  so  mildly,  justly,  and 
wisely  governed  as  by  her  Arab  conquerors. 

The  most  delicate  of  all  problems  is  that  of 
dealing  with  a  conquered  race  in  its  own  land. 
That  this  should  have  been  so  wisely  and  so 
skillfully  handled  would  be  incomprehensible 
if  this  had  been  really,  what  it  is  always 
called,  a  Moorish  conquest.  But  to  be  accu- 
rate, it  was  a  Moorish  invasion  and  a  Saracen 
conquest ! 

The  fierce  Berber  Moor  contributed  the 
brute  force,  which  was  wielded  by  Saracen 
intelligence. 


62  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

The  Saracens  were  the  leaven  which  pene- 
trated the  whole  sodden  mass  of  Mahommed- 
anism.  With  a  civilization  which  had  been 
ripening  for  centuries  under  Oriental  skies, — 
rich  in  wisdom,  learning,  culture,  science,  and 
in  art, — they  had  come  into  Europe,  infidels 
though  they  were,  to  build  up  and  not  to 
destroy. 

The  Roman  conquest  of  Spain  had  civil- 
ized a  barbarous  race.  The  Gothic  con- 
quest of  Romanized  Spain  had  converted 
an  effete  civilization  into  a  strong  semi- 
barbarism.  Now  again  the  Saracen  had 
come  from  the  East  to  convert  a  semi- 
barbarism  into  a  civilization  richer  than 
any  Spain  had  yet  known,  and,  more 
than  that,  to  hold  up  a  torch  of  learning 
and  enlightenment  which  should  illumine 
Europe  in  the  days  of  darkness  which  were 
at  hand.  Although  this  difference  between 
Arab  and  Moor  primarily  existed,  they  be- 
came fused,  and  we  shall  speak  of  them  only 
as  Moors.  But  we  should  not  lose  sight  of 
the  fact  that  the  superior  intelligence  which 
made  the  Moorish  kingdom  magnificent  was 
from  the  land  of  the  Prophet. 

Tire  Saracen  dealt  gently  with  the  con- 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  6^ 

quered  Spaniard,  not  because  his  heart  was 
tender  and  kind,  but  because  he  was  crafty  and 
wise,  and  knew  when  not  to  use  force,  in  order 
to  accomplish  his  ends.  For  the  same  reason 
he  refrained  from  trj'ing  to  break  the  spirit  of 
the  independent  northern  provinces,  where 
the  descendants  of  the  old  Visigoths — the 
Hidalgos  ("sons-of-somebody") — proudly  in- 
trenched themselves  in  an  attitude  of  defiance, 
making  in  time  a  clearly  defined  Christian 
north  and  ]\Ioslem  south,  with  a  mountain 
range  (the  Sierra  Guadarrama)  and  a  river 
(the  Ebro)  as  the  natural  boundary  line  of  the 
two  territories.  The  Moor  was  a  child  of  the 
sun.  If  the  stubborn  Goth  chose  to  sulk,  up 
among  the  chilly  heights  and  on  the  bleak 
plains  of  the  north,  he  might  do  so,  and  it  was 
little  matter  if  one  Alfonso  called  himself 
"  King  of  the  Asturians,"  in  that  mountain- 
defended  and  sea-girt  province.  The  fertile 
plains  of  Andalusia,  and  the  banks  of  the 
Tagus  and  Guadalquivir,  were  all  of  Spain  the 
Moor  wanted  for  the  wonderful  kingdom 
W'hich  was  to  be  the  marvel  of  the  Middle 
Ages. 


CHAPTER  X. 

But,  at  the  early  period  we  are  considering, 
the  "  Christian  kingdom  "  was  composed  of  a 
handful  of  men  and  women  who  had  fled  from 
the  Moslems  to  the  mountains  of  the 
Asturias.  Its  one  stronghold  was  the  cave  of 
Covadonga,  where  Pelagius,  or  Pelayo,  had 
gathered  thirty  men  and  ten  women.  Here, 
in  the  dark  recesses  of  this  cave, — which  was 
approached  through  a  long  and  narrow  moun- 
tain pass,  and  entered  by  a  ladder  of  ninety 
steps, — was  the  germ  of  the  future  kingdoms 
of  Castile  and  Aragon,  and  also  of  the  down- 
fall of  the  Moor.  An  Arab  historian  said 
later:  "  Would  to  God  the  Moslems  had  ex- 
tinguished that  spark  which  was  destined  to 
consume  the  dominion  of  Islam  in  the  north  " 
and,  he  might  have  added,  "  in  Spain." 

When  Alfonso  of  Cantabria  married  the 
daughter  of  Pelayo  in  751,  the  cave  of  Cova- 
donga no  longer  held  the  insurgent  band.  He 
roused  all  the  northern  provinces  against  the 
Moors  and  gathered  an  army  which  drove 

64 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  65 

them  step  by  step  further  south,  until  he  had 
pushed  the  Christian  frontier  as  far  as  the 
great  Sierra,  so  that  the  one-time  Visigoth 
capital  of  Toledo  marked  the  line  of  the  Mos- 
lem border  fortresses.  Too  scanty  in  num- 
bers and  too  poor  in  purse  to  occupy  the 
territory,  Alfonso  and  his  army  then  retreated 
to  their  mountains,  there  to  enjoy  the  empty 
satisfaction  of  their  conquest. 

But  the  Moors  in  Andalusia  had  too  many 
troubles  of  their  own  at  that  time  to  give 
much  heed  to  Alfonso  I.  and  his  rebellious 
band  hiding  in  the  mountains.  The  Berbers 
and  the  Arabs  on  the  African  coast  were  jeal- 
ous and  antagonistic;  the  one  was  devout, 
credulous,  and  emotional;  the  other  cool, 
crafty,  and  diplomatic.  Suddenly  the  long- 
slumbering  hatred  burst  into  open  revolt,  and 
the  Khalif  sent  thirty  thousand  Syrians  to  put 
down  a  formidable  revolution  in  his  African 
dominions. 

In  full  sympathy  with  their  kinsmen  across 
the  sea,  the  Moors  in  Spain  began  to  realize 
that  while  that  land  had  been  won  by  twelve 
thousand  Berbers,  led  by  one  Berber  general, 
that  the  lion's  share  of  the  spoils  had  gone  to 
the  Arabs,  who  were  carrying  things  with  a 


66  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

high  hand !  There  were  signs  of  a  general  up- 
rising, in  concert  with  the  revolution  in 
Africa;  and  it  looked  as  if  the  new  territory 
was  to  be  given  up  to  anarchy;  when  suddenly 
all  was  changed. 

The  Khalif,  who  was  the  head  of  all  the 
Mahommedan  empire,  was  supposed  to  be  the 
supreme  ruler  in  spiritual  and  temporal 
affairs.  But  as  his  empire  extended  to  such 
vast  dimensions,  he  was  obliged  to  delegate 
much  of  his  temporal  authority  to  others;  so 
gradually  it  had  become  somewhat  like  that  of 
the  Pope.  He  was  the  supreme  spiritual 
head,  and  only  nominally  supreme  in  affairs  of 
state. 

The  family  of  Omeyyad  had  given  fourteen 
Khalifs  to  the  Mahommedan  empire  from  66i 
to  750;  at  which  time  the  then  reigning 
Omeyyad  was  deposed,  and  the  second 
dynasty  of  Khalifs  commenced,  called  Abba- 
side,  after  Abbas,  an  uncle  of  the  Prophet. 

Abd-er-Rahman  was  a  Prince  belonging  to 
the  deposed  family  of  the  Omeyyads.  He 
was  the  only  one  of  his  family  who  escaped  the 
exterminating  fury  of  the  Abbasides.  There 
was  no  future  for  him  in  the  east,  so  the 
thoughts  of  the  ambitious  youth  turned  to 


A    SHOUT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIiV.  67 

the  west — to  the  newly  won  territory  of 
Spain. 

The  coming  of  this  last  survivor  of  the 
Omeyyads  to  Andalusia  is  one  of  the  ro- 
mances of  history,  and  was  not  unlike  the 
coming  of  another  young  Pretender  to  Scot- 
land, one  thousand  years  later.  It  aroused 
the  same  wild  enthusiasm,  and  as  if  by  magic 
an  army  gathered  about  him,  to  meet  the 
army  of  the  Governor,  Yusuf,  which  would 
resist  him.  Victory  declared  itself  for  the 
Prince,  and  he  entered  Cordova  in  triumph. 
Before  the  year  had  expired  the  dynasty  of  the 
Omeyyads — which  was  to  stand  for  three 
centuries — was  finally  established,  and  its  first 
king — Abd-er-Rahman — reigned  at  Cordova. 

His  hereditary  enemies  the  Abbasides  fol- 
lowed him  to  Spain,  and  found  supporters 
among  the  disaffected.  But  it  was  in  vain. 
The  Abbaside  army  of  invasion  was  utterly 
annihilated;  and  the  qualities  slumbering  in 
this  son  of  the  Khalifs  may  be  judged  when 
we  relate  that  the  heads  of  the  Abbaside 
leaders  were  put  into  a  bag  with  descriptive 
labels  attached  to  their  ears,  and  sent  to  the 
reigning  Khalif  as  a  present. 

This  little  incident  does  not  seem  to  have 


68  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

injured  him  in  the  estimation  of  Mansur,  the 
new  KhaHf,  who  said  of  him :  "  Wonder- 
ful is  this  man!  Such  daring,  wisdom,  pru- 
dence! To  throw  himself  into  a  distant  land; 
to  profit  by  the  jealousies  of  the  people; 
to  turn  their  arms  against  one  another  instead 
of  against  himself;  to  win  homage  and  obedi- 
ence through  such  difficulties;  and  to  rule 
supreme — lord  of  all !  Of  a  truth  there  is  not 
such  another  man !  "  Abd-er-Rahman  (the 
Sultan,  as  he  was  called)  merited  this  praise. 
He  knew  when  to  be  cruel  and  when  to  show 
mercy;  and  how  to  hold  scheming  Arab  chiefs, 
fierce,  jealous  Berbers,  and  vanquished  Chris- 
tians, and  could  placate  or  crucify  as  the  con- 
ditions required. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Charlemagne  was  at  this  time  building 
up  his  colossal  empire.  His  Christian  soul  was 
mightily  stirred  by  seeing  an  infidel  kingdom 
set  up  in  Andalusia;  and  when,  in  y']'],  the 
Saracen  governor  and  two  other  Arab  chiefs 
appealed  to  him  for  aid  against  the  Omeyyad 
usurper,  Abd-er-Rahman,  he  eagerly  re- 
sponded. His  grandfather  Charles  IMartel 
had  driven  these  infidels  back  over  the  Pyren- 
ees; now  he  would  drive  them  out  of  Spain, 
and  reclaim  that  land  for  Christianity! 

His  army  never  reached  farther  than  Sara- 
gossa.  He  was  recalled  to  France  by  a  revolt 
of  the  recently  conquered  Saxons,  and  the 
"  Battle  of  Roncesvalles "  is  the  historic 
monument  of  the  ill-starred  attempt.  The 
battle  in  itself  was  insignificant.  No  action 
of  such  small  importance  has  ever  been  in- 
vested with  such  a  glamour  of  romance, 
nor  the  theme  of  so  much  legend  and 
poetry.     It     has     been     called     the     Ther- 

69 


70  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

mopylse  of  the  Pyrenees,  because  of  the 
personal  valor  displayed,  and  the  tragic 
death  of  the  two  great  Paladins  (as  the 
twelve  Peers  of  Charlemagne  were  called) 
Roland  and  Olivier.  The  Chanson  de  Roland 
was  one  of  the  famous  ballads  in  the  early 
literature  of  Europe,  and  Roland  and  Olivier 
were  to  French  and  Spanish  minstrelsy  what 
the  knights  of  King  Arthur  were  to  the  Eng- 
lish. 

The  simple  story  about  which  so  much  has 
been  written  and  sung  is  this:  As  the  retreat- 
ing army  of  Charlemagne  was  crossing  the 
Pyrenees,  the  rear  of  the  army  under  Roland 
and  Olivier  was  ambuscaded  in  the  narrow 
pass  of  Roncesvalles  by  the  Basques  and  ex- 
terminated to  a  man. 

These  Basques  were  the  unconquerable 
mountain  tribe  of  which  we  heard  so  much  in 
the  early  history  of  Spain.  They  had  been  on 
guard  for  centuries,  keeping  the  Franks  back 
from  the  Pyrenees.  They  may  have  been  act- 
ing under  Saracenic  influence  when  they  ex- 
terminated the  rear-guard  of  Charlemagne's 
army.  But  it  was  done,  not  because  they 
loved  the  Saracen,  but  because  they  had  a 
hereditary  hatred  for  the  Franks. 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  7 1 

Mediceval  Europe  never  tired  of  hearing  of 
the  Great  Charles'  lament  over  his  Roland: 
"  O  thou  right  arm  of  my  kingdom, — de- 
fender of  the  Christians,— scourge  of  the 
Saracens!  How  can  I  behold  thee  dead,  and 
not  die  myself!  Thou  art  exalted  to  the 
heavenly  kingdom, — and  I  am  left  alone,  a 
poor  miserable  King! " 


CHAPTER   XII. 

The  tide  which  had  flowed  over  southern 
Spain  was  a  singular  mixture  of  religious  fer- 
vor, of  brutish  humanity,  and  refinements  of 
wisdom  and  wickedness.  No  stranger  and 
more  composite  elements  were  ever  thrown 
together.  Permanence  and  peace  were  im- 
possible. Nothing  but  force  could  hold  to- 
gether elements  so  incongruous  and  antago- 
nistic. As  soon  as  the  hand  of  Abd-er-Rah- 
man  I.  was  removed  disintegration  began. 
Clashing  races,  clans,  and  political  parties  had 
in  a  few  years  made  such  havoc  that  it  seemed 
as  if  the  Omeyyad  dynasty  was  crumbling. 

It  might  have  been  an  Arab  w^ho  said  "  he 
cared  not  who  made  the  laws  of  his  country, 
so  he  could  write  its  songs."  Learning,  litera- 
ture, refinements  of  luxury  and  of  art  had 
taken  possession  of  the  land,  which  seemed 
given  up  to  the  muses.  When  in  822  Abd- 
er-Rahman  II.  reigned,  he  did  not  trouble 
himself  about  the  laws  of  his  crumbling  em- 

72 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  73 

pire.  The  one  man  in  whom  he  delighted  was 
Ziryab.  What  Petronius  was  to  Nero,*  and 
Beau  Brummel  to  George  IV.,  that  was 
Zir\-ab  to  the  Sultan  Abd-er-Rahman  II.,  the 
elegant  arbiter  in  matters  of  taste.  From  the 
dishes  which  should  be  eaten  to  the  clothes 
which  should  be  worn,  he  was  the  supreme 
judge;  while  at  the  same  time  he  knew  by- 
heart  and  could  "  like  an  angel  sing "  one 
thousand  songs  to  his  adoring  Sultan. 

Even  the  Gothic  Christians  were  seduced 
by  these  alluring  refinements.  They  felt  con- 
tempt for  their  old  Latin  speech  and  for  their 
literature,  with  the  tiresome  asceticism  it 
eternally  preached.  The  Christian  ideal  had 
grown  to  be  one  of  penance  and  mortification 
of  the  flesh,  and  to  a  few  ardent  souls  these 
sensuous  delights  were  an  open  highway  to 
death  eternal.  Enlogiiis  became  the  leader  of 
this  band  of  zealots.  In  lamenting  the  deca- 
dence of  his  people,  he  wrote,  "  hardly  one  in 
a  thousand  can  write  a  decent  Latin  letter,  and 
yet  they  indite  excellent  Arabic  verse!" 
Filled  with  despairing  ardor  this  man  aroused 
a  few  kindred  spirits  to  join  him  in  a  desper- 

*See  "Quo  Vadis?" 


74  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

ate  attempt  to  awaken  the  benumbed  con- 
science of  the  Christians.  They  could  not  get 
the  Moslems  to  persecute  them,  but  they 
might  attain  martyrdom  by  cursing  the 
Prophet;  then  the  infidels,  however  reluctant, 
would  be  compelled  to  behead  them.  This 
they  did,  and  one  by  one  perished,  to  no  pur- 
pose. The  Gothic  Christians  were  not  con- 
science-stricken as  Eulogius  supposed  they 
would  be,  and  there  was  no  general  uprising 
for  the  Christian  faith. 

In  912  the  threatened  ruin  of  the  dynasty 
was  arrested  by  the  coming  of  another  Abd- 
er-Rahman,  third  Sultan  of  that  name.  Rebel- 
lion was  put  down,  and  fifty  years  of  wise  and 
just  administration  gave  solidity  to  the  king- 
dom, which  also  then  became  a  Khalifate. 

The  Abbaside  Khalifs,  after  the  deposition 
of  the  Omeyyads,  had  removed  the  Khalifate 
from  Damascus  to  Baghdad.  But  the  empire 
had  extended  too  far  west  to  revolve  about 
that  distant  pivot.  Abd-er-Rahman — perhaps 
remembering  the  old  feud  between  his  fam- 
ily and  the  Abbasides — determined  to  as- 
sume the  spiritual  headship  of  the  western  part 
of  the  empire.  And  thereafter,  the  Mahom- 
medan   empire — like   the    Roman — had   two 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPALV.  75 

heads,  an  Eastern  Khalif  at  Baghdad,  and  a 
Western  Khalif  at  Cordova. 

While  thus  extending  his  own  power  the 
Khalif  was  extinguishing  every  spark  of  re- 
bellion in  the  south  and  driving  the  rebellious 
Christians  back  in  the  north,  and  at  the  same 
time  he  was  clothing  Cordova  with  a  splendor 
which  amazed  and  dazzled  even  the  Eastern 
Princes  who  came  to  pay  court  to  the  great 
Khalif.  His  emissaries  were  ever}^vhere  col- 
lecting books  for  his  library  and  treasure  for 
his  palaces,  Cordova  became  the  abode  of 
learning,  and  the  nursery  for  science,  philoso- 
phy, and  art,  transplanted  from  Asia.  The  im- 
agination and  the  pen  of  an  arab  poet  could 
not  have  overdrawn  this  wonderful  city  on  the 
Guadalquivir, — with  its  palaces,  its  gardens, 
and  fountains, — its  50,000  houses  of  the  aris- 
tocracy,— its  700  mosques, — and  900  public 
baths, — all  adorned  with  color  and  carvings 
and  tracery  beautiful  as  a  dream  of  Paradise. 
One  hears  with  amazement  of  the  great 
mosque,  wnth  its  19  arcades,  its  pavings  of 
silver  and  rich  mosaics,  its  1293  clustered 
columns,  inlaid  with  gold  and  lapis-lazuli,  the 
clusters  reaching  up  to  the  slender  arches 
which  supported  the  roof;  the  whole  of  this 


76  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

marvelous  scene  lighted  by  countless  brazen 
lamps  made  from  Christian  bells,  while 
hundreds  of  attendants  swung  censers,  filling 
the  air  with  perfume. 

After  the  ravages  of  a  thousand  years  trav- 
elers stand  amazed  to-day  before  the  forest  of 
columns  which  open  out  in  endless  vistas  in 
the  splendid  ruin,  calling  up  visions  of 
the  vanished  glories  of  Cordova  and  the  Great 
Khalif. 

There  is  not  time  to  tell  of  the  city  this 
Spanish  Khalif  built  for  his  favorite  wife, 
"  The  Fairest,"  and  which  he  called  "  Hill  of 
the  Bride,"  upon  which  for  fifteen  years  ten 
thousand  men  worked  daily;  nor  of  the  four 
thousand  columns  which  adorned  its  palaces, 
presents  from  emperors  and  potentates  in 
Constantinople,  Rome,  and  far-off  Eastern 
states;  nor  of  the  ivory  and  ebony  doors, 
studded  with  jewels,  through  which  shone  the 
sun,  the  light  then  falling  on  the  lake  of  quick- 
silver, which  sent  back  blinding,  quivering 
flashes  into  dazzled  eyes.  And  we  are  told  of 
the  thirteen  thousand  male  servants  who  min- 
istered in  this  palace  of  delight.  All  this,  too, 
at  a  time  when  our  Saxon  ancestors  were  liv- 
ing in  dwellings  without  chimnejs,  and  cast- 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  77 

ing  the  bones  from  the  table  at  which  they 
feasted  into  the  foul  straw  which  covered  their 
floors;  when  a  Gothic  night  had  settled 
upon  Europe,  and  blotted  out  civilization  so 
completely  that  only  in  a  part  of  Italy,  and 
around  Constantinople,  did  there  remain  a 
vestige  of  refinement! 

It  is  said  that  when  the  embassy  from  Con- 
stantinople came  bearing  a  letter  to  the  Kha- 
lif,  the  courtier  whose  duty  it  was  to  read  it 
was  so  awed  by  all  this  splendor  that  he 
fainted! 

And  yet  the  owner  and  creator  of  this  fabu- 
lous luxury, — Sultan  and  Khalif  of  a  dominion 
the  greatest  of  his  time,  and  with  "  The  Fair- 
est "  for  his  adored  wife, — when  he  came  to 
die,  left  a  paper  upon  which  he  had  written 
that  he  could  only  recall  fourteen  days  in 
which  he  had  been  happy. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

In  the  north  there  was  developing  another 
and  very  different  power.  The  descendants 
of  the  Visigoth  Kings,  making  common  cause 
with  the  rough  mountaineers,  had  shared  all 
their  hardships  and  rigors  in  the  mountains  of 
the  Asturias.  Inured  to  privation  and  suf- 
fering, entirely  unacquainted  with  luxury  or 
even  with  the  comforts  of  living,  they  had 
grown  strong,  and  in  a  century  after  Alfonso 
I.  had  emerged  from  their  mountain  shelter 
and  removed  their  court  and  capital  from 
Oviedo  to  Leon,  where  Alfonso  III.  held  sway 
over  a  group  of  barren  kingdoms,  poor, 
proud,  but  with  Hidalgos  and  Dons,  who  were 
keeping  alive  the  sacred  fires  of  patriotism  and 
ol  religion.  This  was  the  rough  cradle  of  a 
Spanish  nationality. 

They  had  their  own  jealousies  and  fierce 
conflicts,  but  all  united  in  a  common  hatred 
of  the  Moor.  Though  they  did  not  yet 
dream  of  driving  him  out  of  their  land,  their 

78 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  79 

brave  leaders,  Ramiro  I.  and  Ordono  I. 
had  been  for  years  steadily  defying  and  tor- 
menting him  with  the  kind  of  warfare  to 
which  they  gave  its  name — guerrilla — mean- 
ing "  little  wars." 

While  the  Great  Khalif  \\^s  consolidating 
his  Moorish  kingdom  and  driving  the  Chris- 
tians back  into  their  mountains,  the  power  of 
that  people  was  being  weakened  by  internal 
strifes  existing  between  the  three  adjacent 
kingdoms — Leon,  Castile,  and  Navarre.  The 
headship  of  Leon  was  for  years  disputed  by 
her  ambitious  neighbor  Castile  (so  called  be- 
cause of  the  numerous  fortified  castles  with 
which  it  was  studded),  under  the  leadership 
of  one  Fernando,  Count  of  Castile. 

There  had  been  the  usual  lapse  into  anarchy 
and  weakness  after  the  Great  Khalif's  death. 
Andalusia  always  needed  a  master,  and  this 
she  found  in  Almanzor,  who  was  Prime  Min- 
ister to  one  of  the  Khalif's  feeble  descendants. 
It  was  a  sad  day  for  the  struggling  kingdom 
in  the  north  when  this  all-subduing  man  took 
the  reins  in  his  own  hands,  and  left  his  young 
master  to  amuse  himself  in  collecting  rare 
manuscripts  and  making  Cordova  more  beau- 
tiful. 


8o  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

This  Almanzor,  the  mightiest  of  the  sol- 
diers of  the  Crescent  since  Tarik  and  Musa, 
proclaimed  a  war  of  faith  against  the  Chris- 
tians, who  were  obliged  to  forget  their  local 
dissensions  and  to  try  with  their  com- 
bined strength  to  save  their  kingdom  from  ex- 
termination. These  were  the  darkest  days  to 
which  they  had  yet  been  subjected.  But  for 
the  death  of  Almanzor  the  ruin  of  the  Chris- 
tian state  would  have  been  complete.  A 
monkish  historian  thus  records  this  wel- 
come event:  "  In  1002  died  Almanzor,  and 
was  buried  in  hell." 

The  death  of  Almanzor  was  the  turning 
point  in  the  fortunes  of  the  two  kingdoms — 
that  of  the  Moors  and  of  the  Christians. 

The  magnificence  and  the  glory  of  the 
kingdom  faded  like  the  mist  before  the  morn- 
ing sun.  Never  again  would  Cordova  be 
called  the  "  Bride  of  Andalusia."  Eight  years 
after  the  death  of  Almanzor  anarchy  and  ruin 
reigned  in  that  city.  The  gentle,  studious 
youth  who  was  Khalif,  was  dragged  with  his 
only  child  to  a  dismal  vault  attached  to  the 
great  mosque;  and  here,  in  darkness  and  cold 
and  damp,  sat  the  grandson  of  the  first  Great 
Khalif,  his  child  clinging  to  his  breast  and 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  8 1 

begging  in  vain  for  food,  his  wretched  father 
pathetically  pleading  with  his  jailers  for  just 
a  crust  of  bread,  and  a  candle  to  relieve  the 
awful  darkness. 

The  brutal  Berbers  now  had  their  turn.  The 
priceless  library,  with  its  six  hundred  thou- 
sand volumes,  was  in  ashes.  They  were  in 
the  "  City  of  the  Fairest."  Palace  after  palace 
was  ransacked,  and  in  a  few  days  all  that 
remained  of  its  exquisite  treasures  of  art 
was  a  heap  of  blackened  stones  (loio).  The 
Christians  drew  their  broken  state  closer  to- 
gether, and  gathered  themselves  for  a  more 
aggressive  warfare  than  any  yet  undertaken. 
The  time  when  the  Moors  were  in  the  throes 
of  civil  war  was  favorable.  The  three  king- 
doms of  Asturias,  Leon,  and  Castile  were  in 
1073  united  into  one  "  kingdom  of  Castile," 
under  Alfonso  VI.,  who  had  already  made 
great  inroads  upon  the  Moslem  territory  and 
laid  many  cities  under  tribute.  With  this 
event,  the  name  Castilian  comes  into  Spanish 
history,  and  from  thenceforth  that  name  ref>- 
resents  all  that  is  proudest,  bravest,  and  most 
characteristic  of  the  part  of  the  race  which 
traces  a  direct  lineage  from  the  ancient  Visi- 
goth Kings. 


82  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

Alfonso  had  not  misjudged  his  opportunity. 
He  had  traversed  Spain  with  his  army,  and 
bathed  in  the  ocean  in  sight  of  the  "  Pillars  of 
Hercules."  His  great  general  Rodrigo  Diaz, 
known  as  "  My  Cid,  the  Challenger,"  had  cut 
another  path  all  the  way  to  Valencia,  where 
he  reigned  as  a  sort  of  uncrowned  king;  and 
he  will  forever  reign  as  crowned  king  in  the 
realm  of  romance  and  poetry;  the  perfect  em- 
bodiment of  the  knightly  idea — the  "  Chal- 
lenger," who,  in  defense  of  the  faith,  would 
stand  before  great  armies  and  defy  them  to 
single  combat!  Whether  "My  Cid"  ever 
did  such  mighty  deeds  as  are  ascribed  to  him, 
no  one  knows.  But  he  stands  for  the  highest 
ideal  of  his  time.  He  was  the  "  King  Ar- 
thur "  of  Spanish  history;  and  so  valiantly  did 
he  serve  the  Christian  cause  that  the  Moors 
were  driven  to  a  most  disastrous  step.  With 
the  Cid  in  Valencia,  with  Alfonso  VI.  march- 
ing a  victorious  army  through  the  Moslem 
territory,  and  with  Toledo,  the  city  of  the 
ancient  Visigoth  Kings,  repossessed,  it  looked 
as  if,  after  almost  four  hundred  years,  the 
Christians  were  about  to  recover  their 
land. 

The  Moors,  thoroughly  frightened,  realiz- 


A    SHOUT  HISTORY  OF  SFAI.V.  83 

ing  how  helpless  they  had  grown,  resolved 
upon  a  desperate  measure. 

There  was,  on  the  opposite  African  coast, 
a  sect  of  Berber  fanatics,  fierce  and  devout, 
known  as  "  saints,"  but  which  the  Moors 
called  Ahnoyavides.  Fighting  for  the  faith 
was  their  occupation.  What  more  fitting 
than  to  use  them  as  a  means  of  driving  the  in- 
fidel Christians  out  of  jMoslem  territory! 

They  came,  like  a  cloud  of  locusts,  and  set- 
tled upon  the  land.  Yusuf,  their  general,  led 
his  men  against  Alfonso's  Castilians  October 
23,  1086.  Near  Badajos  the  attack  was  made 
simultaneously  in  front  and  rear,  crushing 
them  utterly;  Alfonso  barely  escaping  with 
five  hundred  men.  This  was  only  the  first  of 
many  other  crushing  defeats;  the  most  dis- 
heartening of  which  was  the  one  in  1099,  when 
the  Cid,  fighting  in  alliance  with  Pedro,  King 
of  Aragon,  was  defeated  near  Gardia,  on  the 
seacoast.  Then  the  great  warrior's  heart 
broke,  and  he  died;  and  we  are  told  he  was 
clothed  cap-a-pie  in  shining  armor  and  placed 
upright  on  his  good  steed  Bavieca,  his  trusty 
sword  in  his  hand — and  so  he  passed  to  his 
burial;  his  banner  borne  and  guarded  by  five 
hundred  knights.     And  we  are  also  told  the 


84  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

Moors  wonderingly  watched  his  departure 
with  his  knights,  not  suspecting  that  he  was 
dead. 

The  object  of  the  Moors  in  inviting  the 
odious  Almoravides  had  been  accomphshed; 
the  Christians  had  been  driven  out  of  Anda- 
lusia back  into  their  own  territory;  but  their 
African  auxiHaries  were  too  well  pleased  with 
their  new  abode  to  think  of  leaving  it.  One 
by  one  the  Moorish  Princes  were  subdued  by 
the  men  whose  aid  they  had  invoked,  until  a 
dynasty  of  the  Almoravides  was  fastened  upon 
Spain.  To  the  refined  Spanish  Arabs  con- 
tact with  these  savages  from  the  desert  was  a 
terrible  scourge,  and  so  far  as  they  were  able 
they  withdrew  into  communities  by  them- 
selves, leaving  these  African  locusts  to  devour 
their  substance  and  dim  their  glory. 

But  luxury  was  not  favorable  to  the  invad- 
ers. In  another  generation  their  martial 
spirit  was  gone  and  they  had  become  only 
ignorant,  sodden  voluptuaries;  and  when  the 
Christians  once  more  renewed  their  attacks, 
they  failed  to  repel  them  as  Yusuf  had  done 
thirty  years  before. 

There  was  another  fanatical  sect,  be- 
yond the  Atlas  range  in  Africa,  which  had 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  85 

long  been  looking  for  a  coming  Messiah, 
whom  they  called  the  MaJidi.  They  were 
known  as  the  Alhomadcs.  A  son  of  a  lamp- 
lighter in  the  Mosque  of  Cordova  one  day  pre- 
sented himself  before  the  Alhomades,  and  an- 
nounced that  he  was  the  great  Mahdi,  who  was 
divinely  appointed  to  lead  them,  and  to  bring 
happiness  to  all  the  earth. 

The  path  this  Mahdi  desired  to  lead  them 
was  first  to  IMorocco,  there  to  subdue  the  Al- 
moravides  in  their  own  land,  and  thence  to 
Spain.  In  a  short  time  this  entire  plan  was 
realized.  The  Mahdi's  successor  was  Emperor 
of  Morocco,  and  by  the  year  11 50  included  in 
his  dominion  was  all  of  Mahommedan  Spain! 
The  Spanish  Arabs,  w^hen  they  were  fighting 
Alfonso  VI.  and  the  "  Cid,"  did  not  antici- 
pate this  disgraceful  downfall  from  people  of 
their  own  faith.  They  abhorred  these  Ma- 
hommedan savages,  and  drew  together  still 
closer  for  a  century  more  in  and  about  their 
chosen  refuge  of  Granada. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth  century 
the  Emperor  of  Morocco  made  such  enor- 
mous preparations  for  the  occupation  of  Spain 
that  a  larger  design  upon  Europe  became 
manifest.     Once     more     Christendom     was 


86  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

alarmed;  not  since  Charles  Martel  had  the 
danger  appeared  so  great.  The  Pope  pro- 
claimed a  Crusade,  this  time  not  into  Pales- 
tine, but  Spain. 

An  army  of  volunteers  from  the  kingdom  of 
Portugal   and   from   southern   France   re-en- 
forced the  great  armies  of  the  Kings  of  Cas- 
tile, Aragon,  and  Navarre.     The  Crusaders,  as 
they  called  themselves,  assembled  at  Toledo 
July  12,  I2I2,  under  the  command  of  Alfonso 
IX.,  King  of  Castile.    The  power  of  the  Al- 
homades  was  broken,  and  they  were  driven 
out  of  Spain.     The  once  great  Mahommedan 
Empire  in  that  country  was  reduced  to  the 
single  province  of  Granada,  where  the  Moors 
intrenched  themselves  in  their  last  stronghold. 
For  nearly  three  centuries  the  Crescent  was 
yet  to  wave  over  the  kingdom  of  Granada; 
but  it  was  to  shine  in  only  the  pale  light  of  a 
waning  crescent,  until  its  final  extinction  in 
the  full  light  of  a  Christian  day. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

A  GREAT  change  had  been  wrought  in 
Europe.  The  Crusades  had  opened  a  channel 
through  which  flowed  from  the  East  reviving 
streams  of  ancient  knowledge  and  culture 
over  the  arid  waste  of  medisevalism.  France 
and  England  had  awakened  from  their  long 
mental  torpor,  Paris  was  become  the  center  of 
an  intellectual  revival.  In  England,  Roger 
Bacon,  in  his  "  Opus  Majus,"  was  system- 
atizing all  existing  knowledge  and  laying  a 
foundation  for  a  more  advanced  science  and 
philosophy  for  the  people,  who  had  only 
recently  extorted  from  their  wicked  King 
John  the  great  charter  of  their  liberties. 

It  was  just  at  this  period,  when  the  door  had 
suddenly  opened  ushering  Europe  into  a  new 
life,  that  the  Christian  cause  in  Spain  tri- 
umphed; and,  excepting  in  the  little  kingdom 
of  Granada,  the  Cross  waved  from  the  Pyre- 
nees to  the  sea.  After  more  than  four  cen- 
turies of  steadfast  devotion  to  that  object,  the 

87 


88  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

descendants  of  the  Visigoth  Kings  had  come 
once  more  into  their  inheritance. 

They  found  it  enriched,  and  clothed  with  a 
beauty  of  which  their  ancestors  could  never 
have  dreamed.  These  Spaniards  had  learned 
their  lesson  of  valor  in  the  north,  and  they 
had  learned  it  well.  Now  in  the  land  of  the 
Moor,  dwelling  in  the  palaces  they  had  built, 
and  gazing  upon  masterpieces  of  Arabic  art 
and  architecture  which  they  had  left,  they 
were  to  learn  the  subtle  charm  of  form  and 
color,  and  the  fascination  which  music  and 
poetry  and  beauty  and  knowledge  may  lend 
to  life.  As  they  drank  from  these  Moorish 
fountains  the  rugged  warriors  found  them 
very  sweet;  and  they  discovered  that  there 
were  other  pleasures  in  life  beside  fighting  the 
Moors  and  nursing  memories  of  the  Cid  and 
their  vanished  heroes. 

The  territory  of  Fernando  III.,  King  of  Cas- 
tile (1230-52),  extended  now  from  the  Bay  of 
Biscay  to  the  Guadalquivir.  The  ancient  city 
of  Seville  was  chosen  as  his  capital.  It  was  a 
far  cry  from  the  "  Cave  of  Covadonga " 
to  the  Moorish  palace  of  the  "  Alcazar,"  where 
dwelt  the  pious  descendant  of  Pelayo!  Tlie 
first  act  of  Fernando  III.  was  to  convert  the 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  89 

Mosque  at  Seville  into  a  cathedral,  which 
still  stands  with  its  Moorish  bell-tower,  the 
beautiful  "  Giralda."  There  may  also  be  seen 
to-day  over  one  of  its  portals  a  stuffed  croco- 
dile, which  was  sent  alive  to  King  Ferdinand 
by  the  Sultan  of  Egypt.  And  within  the 
cathedraJ,  in  a  silver  urn  with  glass  sides,  the 
traveler  may  also  gaze  to-day  upon  the  re- 
mains of  this  *'  Saint  Ferdinand  "  clothed  in 
royal  robes,  and  with  a  crown  upon  his  head. 
Spain  had  begun  to  lift  up  her  head  among 
the  other  nations  of  Europe.  To  defeat  the 
Crescent  was  the  highest  ideal  of  that  chival- 
ric  age.  Spain,  longer  than  any  other  nation, 
had  fought  the  INIahommedan.  It  had  been 
her  sole  occupation  for  four  centuries,  and 
now  she  had  vanquished  him,  and  driven 
him  into  the  mountains  of  one  of  her 
smallest  provinces,  there  to  hide  from  the 
Spaniards  as  they  had  once  hidden  from  the 
Moors  in  the  North.  This  was  a  pass- 
port to  the  honor  and  respect  of  other  Chris- 
tian nations.  She  was  Spain  "  the  Catholic  " 
— the  loved  and  favorite  child  of  the 
Church — and  great  monarchs  in  England, 
France,  and  Germany  bestowed  their  sons  and 
daughters  upon  her  kings  and  princes.     Poor 


go  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF   SPAIN: 

though  she  was  in  purse,  and  somewhat  rude 
yet  in  manners,  she  held  up  her  head  high  in 
proud  consciousness  of  her  aristocratic  line- 
age, and  her  unmatched  championship  of 
Christianity. 

We  reahze  how  close  had  become  the  tie 
binding  her  to  other  nations  when  we  learn 
that  King  Fernando  III.  was  the  grandson 
of  Queen  Eleanor  of  England  (daughter  of 
Henry  II.),  and  that  Louis  IX.  of  Erance, 
that  other  royal  saint,  was  his  own  cousin; 
and  also  that  his  wife  Beatrix,  whom  he 
brought  with  him  to  Seville,  was  daughter 
of  Frederick  II.,  Emperor  of  Germany. 

The  deep  hold  which  Arabic  life  and 
thought  had  taken  upon  their  conquerors  was 
shown  when  Alfonso  X.,  son  of  Ferdinand, 
came  to  the  throne.  So  in  love  was  he  with 
learning  and  science  that  he  let  his  kingdom 
fall  into  utter  confusion  while  he  busied  him- 
self with  a  set  of  astronomical  tables  upon 
which  his  heart  was  set  and  in  holding  up  to 
ridicule  the  Ptolemaic  theory.  If  he  had 
givei.  less  thought  to  the  stars,  and  more  to 
the  humble  question  as  to  who  was  to  be  his 
successor,  it  would  have  saved  much  strife  and 
sufifering  to  those  who  came  after  him. 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  91 

While  the  IMoslems  were  building  up  their 
kingdom  and  making  of  their  capital  city  a 
second  and  even  more  beautiful  Cordova,  there 
was  a  partial  truce  with  the  Moors  in  Granada. 
Moors  and  Christians  were  enemies  still;  the 
hereditary  hatreds  were  only  lulled  into  tem- 
porar}^  repose.  But  Christian  knights  who 
were  handsome  and  gallant  might  love  and 
woo  IMoorish  maidens  who  were  beautiful; 
and,  as  a  writer  has  intimated,  love  became 
the  business  and  war  the  pastime  of  the  Span- 
iard in  Andalusia.  Spain  was  unconsciously 
inbibing  the  soft,  sensuous  charm  of  the  civili- 
zation she  was  exterminating;  and  the  peculiar 
rhythm  of  Spanish  music,  and  the  subtle 
picturesqueness  which  makes  the  Spanish  peo- 
ple unique  among  the  other  Latin  nations  of 
Europe,  came,  not  from  her  Gothic,  nor  her 
Roman,  nor  her  Phenician  ancestry,  but  from 
the  plains  of  Arabia;  and  the  guitar  and  the 
dance  and  the  castanet,  and  the  charm  and 
the  coquetry  of  her  women,  are  echoes  from 
that  far-off  land  of  poetry  and  romance.  Not 
so  the  bull-fight!  Would  you  trace  to  its 
source  that  pleasant  pastime,  you  must  not 
go  to  the  East;  the  Oriental  was  cruel  to  man, 
but  not  to  beast.     He  would  have  abhorred 


92  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

such  a  form  of  amusement,  for  the  origin  of 
which  we  must  look  to  the  barbarous  Kelt; 
or  perhaps,  as  is  more  probable,  to  the  mys- 
terious Iberians,  since  among  the  Latin  peo- 
ples of  Europe  bull-fighting  is  found  in  Spain 
alone.  Well  was  it  for  Spain  that  her  rough, 
untutored  ancestors  were  kept  hiding  in  the 
mountains  for  centuries,  while  that  brilliant 
Oriental  race  planted  their  Peninsula  thick 
with  the  germs  of  high  thinking  and  beau- 
tiful living. 

As  the  spider,  after  his  glistening  habitation 
has  been  destroyed  by  some  ruthless  footstep, 
goes  patiently  to  work  to  rebuild  it,  so  the 
Moor  in  Granada,  with  his  imperishable  in- 
stinct for  beauty,  was  making  of  his  little  king- 
dom the  most  beautiful  spot  in  Europe.  The 
city  of  Granada  was  lovelier  than  Cordova; 
its  Alhambra  more  enchanting  than  had  been 
the  palaces  in  the  "  City  of  the  Fairest." 
This  citadel,  which  is  fortress  and  palace  in 
one,  still  stands  like  the  Acropolis,  looking 
out  upon  the  plain  from  its  lofty  elevation. 
Volumes  have  been  written  about  its  laby- 
rinthine halls  and  corridors  and  courts,  and 
the  amazing  richness  of  decoration,  which  still 
survives — an   inexhaustible   mine   for   artists 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN".  9i 

and  a  shrine  for  lovers  of  the  beautiful.  But 
Granada  cultivated  other  things  besides  the 
art  of  beauty.  Nowhere  in  Europe  was  there 
in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  such 
advanced  thinking,  and  a  knowledge  so  akin 
to  our  own  to-day,  as  within  the  borders  of 
that  ]Moorish  kingdom. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

There  were  other  reasons  beside  the  grow- 
ing peacefulness  of  the  Spaniards  why  Gra- 
nada was  left  to  develop  in  comparative  secu- 
rity for  two  centuries.  It  was  impossible  that 
adjacent  ambitious  kingdoms,  such  as  Na- 
varre, Castile,  Aragon,  Leon,  and  Portugal, 
with  indefinite  and  disputed  boundaries,  and, 
on  account  of  intermarriages  between  the 
kingdoms,  with  indefinite  and  disputed  suc- 
cessions, should  ever  be  at  peace.  In  the 
perpetual  strife  and  warfare  which  prevailed 
on  account  of  royal  European  alHances,  the 
fate  of  foreign  princes  and  princesses  were 
often  involved,  and  hence  European  states 
stood  ready  to  take  a  hand. 

Castile  and  Aragon  had  gradually  absorbed 
the  smaller  states,  excepting  Portugal  on  the 
one  side  and  Navarre  on  the  other.  The  his- 
tory of  Spain  at  this  time  is  a  history  of  the 
struggles  of  these  two  states  for  supremacy. 
The  most  eventful  as  well  as  the  most  lurid 

94 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  95 

period  of  this  prolonged  civil  war  was  while 
Pedro  the  Cruel  was  king  of  Castile,  1350- 
69.  This  Spanish  Nero,  when  sixteen  years 
old,  commenced  his  reign  by  the  murder  of 
his  mother.  A  catalogue  of  his  crimes  is  im- 
possible. Enough  to  say  that  assassination 
was  his  remedy,  and  means  of  escape,  from 
every  entanglement  in  which  his  treacheries 
involved  him.  It  was  the  unhappy  fate  of 
Blanche  de  Bourbon,  sister  of  Charles  V., 
King  of  France,  to  marrv^  this  King  of  Castile, 
and  when  he  refused  to  live  with  her  and  had 
her  removed  from  his  palace  the  Alcazar  to  a 
fortress,  and  finally  poisoned  her,  the  French 
King  determined  to  avenge  the  insult  to  his 
royal  house.  He  allied  himself  with  the  King 
of  Aragon  to  destroy  Pedro,  with  whom  the 
King  of  Aragon  was  of  course  at  war. 

Edward,  the  "  Black  Prince,"  was  then 
brilliantly  invading  France  and  extending  the 
kingdom  of  his  father  Edward  III.  He  was 
the  kinsman  of  Pedro,  and  when  appealed  to 
by  his  cousin  for  aid  in  protecting  his  king- 
dom from  the  King  of  Aragon  and  his  French 
allies,  Edward  gallantly  consented  to  help 
him;  and  in  the  spring  of  1367,  for  the  second 
time,  a  splendid  army  advanced  through  the 


gS  A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  SPAIN: 

Pass  at  Roncesvalles,  and  a  great  battle, 
worthy  of  a  better  cause,  was  fought  and 
won. 

So  this  most  atrocious  king — perhaps  ex- 
cepting Richard  III.  of  England,  whom  he 
resembled — had  for  his  champion  the  victor  of 
Cressy  and  Poictiers.  He  was  restored  to  his 
throne,  which  had  been  usurped  by  his  brother 
Enrique  (or  Henry),  but  in  a  personal  en- 
counter with  Enrique  soon  after  (which  was 
artfully  brought  about  by  the  famous  Breton 
knight,  Bertrand  du  Guesclin),  he  met  a  de- 
served fate  (1369). 

Constanza,  the  daughter  of  Pedro  the  Cruel, 
had  been  married  to  John  of  Gaunt  (Duke  of 
Lancester),  brother  of  the  Black  Prince  and 
son  of  Edward  IH.  As  Constanza  was  the 
great-grandmother  of  Isabella  I.  of  Spain,  so 
in  the  veins  of  that  revered  Queen  there 
flowed  the  blood  of  the  Plantagenets,  as  well 
as  that  of  Pedro  the  Cruel! 

Because  of  the  number  of  doubtful  pretend- 
ers always  existing  in  Spain,  disputes  about 
the  royal  succession  also  always  existed. 
Such  a  dispute  now  led  to  a  long  war  with 
Portugal,  where  King  Fernando  had  really  the 
most   valid   hereditar}^   claim   to  the   throne 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  97 

made  vacant  by  Pedro's  death.  If  his  right 
had  been  acknowledged,  Portugal  and  Spain 
would  now  be  united;  Isabella  would  have  re- 
mained only  a  poor  and  devout  princess,  and 
would  never  have  had  the  power  to  win  a  con- 
tinent for  the  world.  So  impossible  is  it  to 
remove  one  of  the  links  forged  by  fate,  that 
we  dare  not  regret  even  so  monstrous  a  reign 
as  that  of  Pedro  the  Cruel! 

Enrique's  right  to  the  vacant  throne  of  his 
brother  had  two  disputants.  Besides  the 
King  of  Portugal,  John  of  Gaunt,  who  had 
married  the  lady  Constanza, — by  virtue  of  her 
rights  as  daughter  of  Pedro, — claimed  the 
crow-n  of  Castile.  This  Plantagenet  was  actu- 
ally proclaimed  King  of  Castile  and  Leon 
(1386).  For  twenty-five  years  he  vainly 
strove  to  come  into  his  kingdom  as  sovereign; 
but  finally  compromised  by  giving  his  young 
daughter  Catherine  to  the  boy  "  Prince  of 
Asturias,"  the  heir  to  the  throne.  He  was 
obliged  to  content  himself  by  thus  securing  to 
his  child  the  long-coveted  prize.  And  it  was 
this  Catherine,  who  at  fourteen  w^as  betrothed 
to  a  boy  of  nine,  who  was  the  grandmother  of 
Isabella,  Queen  of  Castile. 

When  such  was  the  private  history  of  those 


98  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

highest  in  the  land  we  can  only  imagine 
what  must  have  been  that  of  the  rest.  Feud- 
alism, which  was  a  part  of  Spain's  Gothic  in- 
heritance, had  always  made  that  country  one 
of  its  strongholds,  and  chivalry  had  nowhere 
else  found  so  congenial  a  soil.  There  was  no 
great  artisan  class,  as  in  France,  creating  a 
powerful  "  bourgeoisie  ";  no  "  guilds,"  or  sim- 
ple "  burghers,"  as  in  Germany,  stubbornly 
standing  for  their  rights;  no  "  boroughs  "  and 
"  town  meetings,"  where  the  people  were 
sternly  guarding  their  liberties,  as  in  England. 
The  history  of  other  nations  is  that  of  the 
struggles  of  the  common  people  against  the 
tyranny  of  kings  and  rulers.  If  there  were 
any  "  common  people  "  in  Spain,  they  were 
so  effaced  that  liistory  makes  no  mention  of 
them.  We  hear  only  of  kings  and  great 
barons  and  glorious  knights;  and  their  won- 
derful deeds  and  their  valor  and  prowess— ^ex- 
cepting in  the  wars  with  the  Moors — were 
always  over  boundary-lines  and  successions, 
or  personal  quarrels  more  or  less  disgraceful, 
with  never  a  single  high  purpose  or  a  principle 
involved.  It  was  all  a  gay,  ambitious  pageant, 
adorned  by  a  mantle  of  chivalry,  and  made 
sacred  by  the  banner  of  the  Cross.     In  the 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  99 

history  of  no  other  European  country  do  we 
see  a  great  state  develop  under  despotism  so 
unredeemed  by  wholesome  ideals,  and  so  un- 
mitigated and  unrestrained  by  gentle  human 
impulses. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Juan  11. , the  son  of  the  young  Catherine  and 
the  boy  prince  of  the  Asturias,  died  in  1454, 
and  his  son  Enrique  (or  Henry)  IV.  was  King 
of  Castile.  When,  after  some  years,  Henry 
was  without  children,  and  with  health  very  in- 
firm, his  young  sister  Isabella  unexpectedly 
found  herself  the  acknowledged  heir  to  the 
throne  of  Castile.  She  suddenly  became  a 
very  important  young  person.  The  old  King 
of  Portugal  was  a  suitor  for  her  hand^ 
and  a  brother  of  the  King  of  Eng- 
land, and  also  a  brother  of  the  King  of 
France,  were  striving  for  the  same  honor. 
But  Isabella  had  very  decided  views  of  her 
own.  Her  hero  was  the  young  Ferdinand  of 
Aragon,  and  heir  to  that  throne.  She  resisted 
all  her  brother's  efforts  to  coerce  her,  and 
finally  took  the  matter  into  her  own  hands  by 
sending  an  envoy  to  her  handsome  young 
lover  to  come  to  her  at  Valladolid,  with  a 
letter  telling  him  they  had  better  be  married 
at  once. 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  lOi 

Accompanied  by  a  few  knights  disguised  as 
merchants,  Ferdinand,  pretending  to  be  their 
servant,  during  the  entire  journey  waited 
on  them  at  table  and  took  care  of  their  mules. 
He  entered  Valladolid,  where  he  was  received 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  who  was  in  the 
conspiracy,  and  was  by  him  conveyed  to  Isa- 
bella's apartments.  We  are  told  that  when  he 
entered  someone  exclaimed:  Ese-es,  Ese-cs 
(that  is  he);  and  the  escutcheon  of  the  descend- 
ants of  that  knight  has  ever  since  borne  a  dou- 
ble S.  S.,  which  sounds  like  this  exclamation. 

The  marriage  was  arranged  to  take  place  in 
four  days.  An  embarrassment  then  occurred 
of  which  no  one  had  before  thought.  Neither 
of  them  had  any  money.  But  someone  was 
found  who  would  lend  them  enough  for  the 
wedding  expenses,  and  so  on  the  19th  of 
October,  1469,  the  most  important  marriage 
ever  yet  consummated  in  Spain  took  place — a 
marriage  which  would  forever  set  at  rest  the 
rivalries  between  Castile  and  Aragon,  and 
bring  honors  undreamed  of  to  a  united  Spain. 

Isabella  was  fair,  intelligent,  accomplished, 
and  lovely.  She  was  eighteen  and  her  boy 
husband  was  a  year  younger.  Of  course  her 
royal  brother  stormed  and  raged.     But,   of 


I02  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

course,  it  did  no  good.  In  five  years  from 
that  time  (1474)  he  died,  and  Isabella,  royally 
attired,  and  seated  on  a  white  palfrey,  pro- 
ceeded to  the  throne  prepared  for  her,  and 
was  there  proclaimed  "  Queen  of  Castile." 
At  the  end  of  another  five  years,  Ferdinand 
came  into  his  inheritance.  His  old  father, 
Juan  11. ,  King  of  Aragon  and  Navarre,  died 
in  1479,  and  Castile,  Aragon,  and  Navarre — 
all  of  Spain  except  Portugal  and  Granada — 
had  come  under  the  double  crown  of  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella. 

The  war  with  Portugal  still  existed,  and 
their  reign  began  in  the  midst  of  confusion 
and  trouble,  but  it  was  brilliant  from  the  out- 
set. Ferdinand  had  great  abilities  and  an 
ambition  which  matched  his  abilities.  Isa- 
bella, no  less  ambitious  than  he,  was  more  far- 
reaching  in  her  plans,  and  always  saw  more 
clearly  than  Ferdinand  what  was  for  the  true 
glory  of  Spain.  With  infinite  tact  she  soft- 
ened his  asperities,  and  disarmed  his  jeal- 
ousy, and  ruled  her  "  dear  lord,"  by  making 
him  believe  he  ruled  her. 

A  joint  sovereignty,  with  a  man  so  grasping 
of  power  and  so  jealous  of  his  own  rights,  re- 
quired self-control  and  tact  in  no  ordinary 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  103 

measure.  It  was  agreed  at  last  that  in  all  pub- 
lic acts  Ferdinand's  name  should  precede  hers; 
and  although  her  sanction  was  necessary,  his 
indignation  at  this  was  abated  by  her  promise 
gf  submission  to  his  will.  The  court  of  the 
new  sovereigns  was  established  at  Seville,  and 
they  took  up  their  abode  in  that  palace  so 
filled  with  associations  both  Moorish  and 
Castilian — the  Alcazar.  From  the  very  first 
Isabella's  powerful  mind  grappled  every  pub- 
lic question,  and  she  gave  herself  heart  and 
soul  to  what  she  believed  was  her  divine  mis- 
sion— the  building  up  of  a  great  Catholic  state. 
Isabella's  devout  soul  was  sorely  troubled 
by  the  prevalence  of  Judaism  in  her  king- 
dom. She  took  counsel  with  her  confessor, 
and  also  with  the  Pope,  and  by  their  advice  a 
religious  tribunal  was  established  at  Seville  in 
1483,  the  object  of  which  was  to  inquire  of 
heretics  whether  they  were  willing  to  re- 
nounce their  faith  and  accept  Christianity. 
The  head  of  this  tribunal,  which  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  others  in  all  the  large  cites,  was  a 
Dominican  friar  called  Torqncmada.  He  was 
known  as  the  "  Inquisitor  General."  Inac- 
cessible to  pity,  mild  in  manners,  humble  in 
demeanor,   yet   swayed   only   by   a   sense  of 


104  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

duty,  this  strange  being  was  so  cruel  that  he 
seems  like  an  incarnation  of  the  evil  principle. 
At  the  tribunal  in  Seville  alone  it  is  said  that 
in  thirty-six  years  four  thousand  victims  were 
consigned  to  the  flames,  besides  the  thousands 
more  who  endured  living  deaths  by  torture, 
mutilation,  and  nameless  sufferings. 

Humanity  shudders  at  the  recital!  And 
yet  this  monstrous  tribunal  was  the  creation  of 
one  of  the  wisest  and  gentlest  of  women,  who 
believed  no  rigors  could  be  too  great  to  save 
people  from  eternal  death!  And,  in  her  mis- 
guided zeal,  she  emptied  her  kingdom  of  a  peo- 
ple who  had  helped  to  create  its  prosperity, 
and  drove  the  most  valuable  part  of  her  popu- 
lation into  France,  Italy,  and  England,  there 
to  disseminate  the  seeds  of  a  higher  culture 
and  intelligence  which  they  had  imbibed  from 
contact  vvith  the  Moors,  who  had  treated  them 
with  such  uniform  tolerance  and  gentleness. 

The  kingdom  of  Granada  was  now  at  the 
height  of  its  splendor.  Its  capital  city  was 
larger  and  richer  than  any  city  in  Spain.  Its 
army  was  the  best  equipped  of  any  in  Europe. 
The  Moorish  king,  a  man  of  fiery  temper, 
thought  the  time  had  come  when  he 
might     defy     his     enemy     by     refusing     to 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  105 

pay  an  annual  tribute  to  which  his  father 
had  ten  years  before  consented.  When 
Ferdinand's  messenger,  in  1476,  came  to 
demand  the  accustomed  tribute,  he  said, 
"  Go  tell  your  master  the  kings  who 
pay  tribute  in  Granada  are  all  dead.  Our 
mints  coin  nothing  but  sword-blades 
now." 

The  cool  and  crafty  Ferdinand  prepared  his 
own  answer  to  this  challenge.  The  infatuated 
King  Abdul-Hassan  followed  up  his  insult 
by  capturing  the  Christian  fortress  of  Zahara. 
His  temper  was  not  at  the  best  at  this  time  on 
account  of  a  war  raging  in  his  own  household. 
His  wife  Ayesha  was  fiercely  jealous  of  a 
Christian  captive  whom  he  had  also  made  his 
wife.  She  had  become  his  favorite  Sultana, 
and  was  conspiring  to  have  her  own  son  sup- 
plant Boabdil,  the  son  of  Ayesha,  the  heir  to 
the  throne.  In  his  championship  of  Zoraya 
and  her  son,  Abdul-Hassan  imprisoned  Aye- 
sha and  Boalxlil,  whom  he  threatened  to  disin- 
herit. We  are  shown  to-day  the  window  in 
the  Alhambra  from  which  Ayesha  lowered 
Boabdil  in  a  basket,  telling  him  to  come  back 
with  an  army  and  assert  his  rights.  Sud- 
denly,  while   absorbed   by   this   smaller  war, 


Io6  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

news  came  that  Alhama,  their  most  im- 
pregnable fortress,  only  six  leagues  from  the 
city  of  Granada,  had  been  captured  by 
Ferdinand's  army.  It  was  the  key  to  Gra- 
nada. Despair  was  in  every  soul.  The  air  was 
filled  with  wailing  and  lamentation.  "  Woe, 
woe  is  me,  Alhama!  "  "  Ay  de  mi,  Alhama!  " 
Indignant  with  their  old  king,  who  had 
brought  destruction  upon  them,  when  Boab- 
dil  came  with  his  army  of  followers,  they 
flocked  about  him— "  El  Rey  Chico!"  (the 
boy  king)  as  they  called  him.  Abdul  Hassan 
was  forced  to  fly,  and  Boabdil  reigned  over 
the  expiring  kingdom.  It  was  a  brief  and 
troubled  reign. 

In  the  famous  "  Court  of  the  Lions  "  in  the 
Alhambra,  visitors  are  shown  to-day  the 
blood-stains  left  by  the  celebrated  massacre 
of  the  "  Abencerrages."  The  Abencerrages 
had  supported  the  claim  of  Ayesha's  rival, 
Zoraya;  and  it  is  said  that  Boabdil  invited  the 
Princes  of  this  clan,  some  thirty  in  number, 
to  a  friendly  conference  in  the  Alhambra,  and 
there  had  them  treacherously  beheaded  at  the 
fountain. 

But  whether  this  blood-stain  upon  his 
memory  is   as   doubtful  as   those   upon   the 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  107 

Stones    at    the    fountain,    seems    an    open 
question. 

So  stubborn  was  the  defense,  it  appeared 
sometimes  as  if  the  reduction  of  Granada 
would  have  to  be  abandoned.  Isabella's 
courage  and  faith  were  sorely  tried.  But  the 
brave  Queen  infused  her  own  courage 
into  the  flagging  spirits  of  her  hus- 
band, and  kept  alive  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
people;  and  at  last, — on  the  2d  of  January, 
1492, — the  proud  city  capitulated.  Boabdil 
surrendered  the  keys  of  the  Alhambra  to 
Ferdinand — the  silver  cross  which  had  pre- 
ceded the  King  throughout  the  war  gleamed 
from  a  high  tower;  and  from  the  loftiest  pin- 
nacle of  the  Alhambra  waved  the  banners  of 
Castile  and  Aragon. 

The  conflict  which  had  lasted  for  781  years 
was  over.  The  death  of  Roderick  and  the  fall 
of  the  Goths  was  avenged,  and  Christendom, 
still  weeping  for  the  loss  of  Constantinople, 
was  consoled  and  took  heart  again. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  reduction  of  Granada  had  required 
eleven  years,  and  had  drained  the  kingdom  of 
all  its  resources.  It  is  not  strange  that  Isa- 
bella should  have  had  no  time  to  listen  seri- 
ously to  a  threadbare  enthusiast  asking  for 
money  and  ships  for  a  strange  adventure!  To 
have  grown  old  and  haggard  in  pressing  an 
unsuccessful  project  is  not  a  passport  to  the 
confidence  of  Princes.  But  the  gracious 
Queen  had  promised  to  listen  to  him  when  the 
war  with  the  Moors  w^as  concluded.  So 
now  Columbus  sought  her  out  at  Granada; 
and  it  is  a  strange  scene  which  the  imagination 
pictures — a  shabby  old  man  pleading  with  a 
Queen  in  the  halls  of  the  Alhambra  for  permis- 
sion to  lift  the  veil  from  an  unsuspected  Hemi- 
sphere; artfully  dwelling  upon  the  glory  of 
planting  the  Cross  in  the  dominions  of  the 
Great  Khan !  The  cool,  unimaginative  Ferdi- 
nand listened  contemptuously;  but  Isabella, 
for  once  opposing  the  will  of  her  "  dear  lord," 

io8 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIiV.  109 

arose  and  said,  "  The  enterprise  is  mine.  I 
undertake  it  for  Castile."  And  on  the  3d  of 
August,  1492,  the  Httle  fleet  of  caravels  sailed 
from  the  mouth  of  the  same  river  whence  had 
once  sailed  the  "  ships  of  Tarshish,"  laden 
with  treasure  for  King  Solomon  and  "  Hiram, 
King  of  Tyre."  A  union  with  Portugal — the 
land  of  the  Lusitanians  and  of  Sertorius — was 
all  that  was  now  required  to  make  of  the  Span- 
ish Peninsula  one  kingdom.  This  Isabella 
planned  to  accomplish  by  the  marriage  of  her 
oldest  daughter,  Isabella,  with  the  King  of 
Portugal.  Her  son  John,  heir  to  the  Spanish 
throne,  had  died  suddenly  just  after  his  mar- 
riage with  the  daughter  of  IMaximilian,  Em- 
peror of  Germany. 

This  terrible  blow  was  swiftly  followed  by 
another,  the  death  of  her  daughter  Isabella, 
and  also  that  of  the  infant  which  was  expected 
to  unite  the  kingdoms  of  Portugal  and  Spain. 
The  succession  of  Castile  and  Aragon  now 
passed  to  Joanna,  her  second  daughter,  who 
had  married  Philip,  Archduke  of  Austria  and 
son  of  Maximilian,  an  unfortunate  child  who 
seemed  on  the  verge  of  madness. 

Isabella's  youngest  daughter,  Catherine,  be- 
came the  wife  of  Henry  VIII.   of  England. 


no  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

Happily  the  mother  did  not  hve  to  witness  this 
child's  unhappiness;  but  her  heart-breaking 
losses  and  domestic  griefs  were  greater  than 
she  could  bear.  The  unbalanced  condition  of 
Joanna,  upon  whom  rested  all  her  hopes,  was 
undermining  her  health.  The  results  of  the 
expedition  of  Columbus  had  exceeded  the 
wildest  dreams  of  romance.  Gold  was  pour- 
ing in  from  the  West  enough  to  pay  for  the 
war  with  the  Moors  many  times  over,  and  for 
all  wars  to  come.  Spain,  from  being  the 
poorest,  had  suddenly  become  the  richest 
country  in  Europe;  richest  in  wealth,  in  terri- 
tory, and  in  the  imperishable  glory  of  its  dis- 
covery. But  Isabella, — who  had  been  the  in- 
strument in  this  transformation, — who  had 
built  up  a  firm  united  kingdom  and  swept  it 
clean  of  heretics,  Jews,  and  Moors, — was  still 
a  sad  and  disappointed  woman,  thwarted  in 
her  dearest  hopes;  and  on  the  26th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1504,  she  died  leaving  the  fruits  of  her 
triumphs  to  a  grandson  six  years  old. 

This  infant  Charles  was  proclaimed  King  of 
Castile  under  the  regency  of  his  ambitious 
father,  the  Archduke  of  Austria,  and  his  in- 
sane mother.  The  death  of  the  Archduke 
and  the  incapacity  of  Joanna  in  a  few  years 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  m 

gave  to  Ferdinand  the  control  of  the  two  king- 
doms for  which  he  had  contended  and 
schemed,  until  his  own  death  in  1516,  when 
the  crowns  of  Castile  and  Aragon  passed  to 
his  grandson,  who  was  proclaimed  Charles  I., 
King  of  Spain. 

A  plain,  sedate  youth  of  sixteen  was  called 
from  his  home  in  Flanders  to  assume  the 
crowns  of  Castile  and  Aragon.  Silent,  re- 
ser\^ed,  and  speaking  the  Spanish  language 
very  imperfectly,  the  impression  produced  by 
the  young  King  was  very  unpromising.  No 
one  suspected  the  designs  which  were  matur- 
ing under  that  mask;  nor  that  this  boy  was 
planning  to  grasp  all  the  threads  of  diplomacy 
in  Europe,  and  to  be  the  master  of  kings. 

In  1 51 7  Maximilian  died,  leaving  a  vacant 
throne  in  Germany  to  be  contended  for  by  the 
ambitious  Francis  I.  of  France  and  Maxi- 
milian's grandson,  Charles. 

It  was  a  question  of  supremacy  in  Europe. 
So  the  successful  aspirant  must  win  to  himself 
Leo  X.,  Henry  VIII.  and  his  great  minister 
Wolsey,  and  after  that  the  Electors  of  Ger- 
many. It  required  consummate  skill.  Fran- 
cis I.  was  an  able  player.  The  astute  Wolsey 
made  the  moves  for  his  master  Henry  VIIL, 


112  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN, 

keeping  a  watchful  eye  on  Charles,  "  that 
young  man  who  looks  so  modest,  and  soars  so 
high  ";  while  Leo  X.,  unconscious  of  the  com- 
ing Reformation,  was  craftily  aiding  this  side 
or  that  as  benefit  to  the  Church  seemed  to  be 
promised. 

But  that  "  modest  young  man  "  played  the 
strongest  game.  Charles  was,  by  the  unani- 
mous vote  of  the  Electors,  raised  to  the  im- 
perial throne;  and  the  grandson  of  Isabella, 
as  Charles  I.  of  Spain  and  Charles  V.  of  Ger- 
many, possessed  more  power  than  had  been 
exercised  by  any  one  man  since  the  reign  of 
Augustus.  The  territory  over  which  he  had 
dominion  in  the  New  World  was  practically 
without  limit.  Mexico  surrendered  to  Cortez 
(1521)  and  Peru  to  Pizarro  (1532);  Ponce  de 
Leon  was  in  Florida  and  de  Soto  on  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi;  while  wealth,  fabulous  in 
amount,  was  pouring  into  Spain,  and  from 
thence  into  Flanders. 

The  history  of  Charles  belongs,  in  fact, 
more  to  Europe  than  to  Spain.  No  slightest 
tenderness  seems  to  have  existed  in  his  cold 
heart  for  the  land  of  Isabella,  which  he  seemed 
to  regard  simply  as  a  treasury  from  which  to 
draw  money  for  the  objects  to  which  he  was 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIiV.  113 

really  devoted.  So,  in  fact,  Spain  was  gov- 
erned by  an  absolute  despot  who  was  Em- 
peror of  Germany,  where  he  resided,  and  she 
visibly  declined  from  the  strength  and  pros- 
perity which  had  been  created  by  the  wise  and 
personal  administration  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella. 

The  Cortes,  where  the  deputies  had  never 
been  allowed  the  privilege  of  debate,  had 
been  at  its  best  a  very  imperfect  expression  of 
popular  sentiment;  and  now  was  reduced  to  a 
mere  empty  form.  Abuses  which  had  been 
corrected  under  the  vigilant  personal  ad- 
ministration of  two  able  and  patriotic  sov- 
ereigns returned  in  aggravated  form.  Mis- 
rule and  disorder  prevailed,  while  their  King 
was  absorbed  in  the  larger  field  of  European 
politics  and  diplomacy. 

The  light  in  which  Spain  shines  in  this, 
which  is  always  accounted  her  most  glorious 
period,  was  that  of  Discovery  and  Conquest 
and  the  enormous  wealth  coming  therefrom; 
all  of  which  was  bestowed  by  that  shabby  ad- 
venturer and  suppliant  at  the  Alhambra,  in 
whom  Isabella  alone  believed,  and  who,  after 
enriching  Spain  beyond  its  wildest  expecta- 
tions, was  permitted  to  die  in  poverty  and  neg- 


114  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

lect  at  Valladolid  in  1506!  History  has  writ- 
ten its  verdict:  imperishable  renown  to  Co- 
lumbus, Balboa,  Magellan,  and  the  navigators 
who  dared  such  perils  and  won  so  much;  and 
eternal  infamy  to  the  men  who  planted  a 
bloodstained  Cross  in  those  distant  lands. 
The  history  of  the  West  Indies,  of  Mexico, 
and  Peru  is  unmatched  for  cruelty  in  the  an- 
nals of  the  world;  and  Isabella's  is  the  only 
voice  that  was  ever  raised  in  defense  of  the 
gentle,  helpless  race  which  was  found  in  those 
lands. 

The  Reformation,  which  had  commenced  in 
Germany  with  the  reign  of  Charles  V.,  had 
assumed  enormous  proportions.  Charles, 
who  was  a  bigot  with  "  heart  as  hard  as  ham- 
mered iron,"  was  using  with  unsparing  hand 
the  Inquisition,  that  engine  of  cruelty  created 
by  his  grandmother.  And  while  his  captains, 
the  "  conquistador?,"  were  burning  and  tor- 
turing in  the  West,  he  was  burning  and  tortur- 
ing in  the  East.  His  entire  reign  was  occu- 
pied in  a  struggle  with  his  ambitious  rival 
Francis  I.,  and  another  and  vain  struggle  with 
the  followers  of  Luther. 

He  had  married  Isabel,  the  daughter  of  the 
King  of  Portugal.     Philip,  his  son  and  heir. 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  1 15 

was  born  in  1527.  The  desire  of  his  heart 
was  to  secure  for  this  son  the  succession  to 
the  imperial  throne  of  Germany.  To  this  the 
electors  would  not  consent.  He  was  defeated 
in  the  two  objects  dearest  to  his  heart:  the 
power  to  bequeath  this  imperial  possession  to 
Philip,  and  the  destruction  of  Protestantism. 
So  this  most  powerful  sovereign  since  the  day 
of  Charlemagne  felt  himself  ill-used  by  Fate. 
Weary  and  sick  at  heart,  in  the  year  1556  he 
abdicated  in  favor  of  Philip.  The  Nether- 
lands vvas  his  own  to  bestow  upon  his  son,  as 
that  was  an  inheritance  from  his  father,  the 
Archduke  of  Austria.  So  the  fate  of  Philip 
does  not  seem  to  us  so  very  heart-breaking, 
as,  upon  the  abdication  of  his  father,  he  was 
King  of  Spain,  of  Naples,  and  of  Sicily;  Duke 
of  Milan;  Lord  of  the  Netherlands  and  of  the 
Indies,  and  of  a  vast  portion  of  the  American 
continent  stretching  from -the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific! 

Such  was  the  inheritance  left  to  his  son  by 
the  disappointed  man  who  carried  his  sorrows 
to  the  monastery  at  St.  Yuste,  where  the 
austerities  and  severities  he  practiced  finally 
cost  him  his  life  (1558).  But  let  no  one  sup- 
pose that  these  penances  were  on  account  of 


Il6  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

cruelties  practiced  upon  his  Protestant  sub- 
jects! From  his  cloister  he  wrote  to  the 
inquisitors  adjuring  them  to  show  no  mercy; 
to  deliver  all  to  the  flames,  even  if  they  should 
recant;  and  the  only  regret  of  the  dying  peni- 
tent was  that  he  had  not  executed  Luther! 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Philip  established  his  capital  at  Madrid, 
and  commenced  the  Palace  of  the  Escurial, 
nineteen  miles  distant,  which  stands  to-day  as 
his  monument.  His  coronation  was  celebrated 
by  an  auto-da-fe  at  Valladolid,  which  it  is  said 
"  he  attended  with  much  devotion."  One  of 
the  victims,  an  officer  of  distinction,  while 
awaiting  his  turn  said  to  him:  "  Sire,  how  can 
you  witness  such  tortures?  "  "  Were  my  own 
son  in  your  place  I  should  witness  it,"  was  the 
reply ;  which  was  a  key  to  the  character  of  the 
man. 

He  asserted  his  claim  through  his  mother, 
the  Princess  Isabel  of  Portugal,  to  the  throne 
of  that  country,  and  after  a  stubborn  contest 
with  the  Lusitanians,  the  long-desired  union 
of  Spain  and  Portugal  was  accomplished. 
This  event  was  celebrated  by  Cervantes  in  a 
poem  which  extravagantly  lauds  his  sover- 
ereign.  Henry  VHI.  had  been  succeeded  in 
England  by  ]\Iary,  daughter  of  his  unhappy 

117 


Il8  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

Queen,  Catherine  of  Aragon,  who,  it  will  be 
remembered,  was  the  daughter  of  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella.  Mary  had  inherited  the  intense 
religious  fervor  and  perhaps  the  cruel  in- 
stincts of  her  mother's  family,  and  she  quickly 
set  about  restoring  Protestant  England  to  the 
Catholic  faith.  Philip  saw  in  a  union  with 
Mary  and  a  joint  sovereignty  over  England, 
such  as  he  hoped  would  follow,  an  immense 
opportunity  for  Spain.  The  marriage  took 
place  with  great  splendor,  and  in  the  desire  to 
please  her  handsome  husband,  of  whom  she 
was  very  fond,  she  commenced  the  work 
which  has  given  her  the  title,  "  Bloody  Mary." 
In  vain  were  human  torches  lighted  to  lure 
Philip  from  Spain,  where  he  lingered.  She 
did  not  win  his  love,  nor  did  Philip  reign 
conjointly  with  his  royal  consort  in  England. 
Mary  died  in  1558,  and  her  Protestant  sister 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Anne  Boleyn,  was 
Queen  of  England. 

Philip  had  made  up  his  mind  that  Protest- 
antism should  be  exterminated  in  his  king- 
dom of  the  Netherlands.  He  could  not  go 
there  himself,  so  he  looked  about  for  a  suita- 
ble instrument  for  his  purpose.  The  Duke  of 
Alva   was    the    man    chosen.     He    was    ap- 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  1 19 

pointed  Viceroy,  with  full  authority  to  carry 
out  the  pious  design.  Heresy  must  cease  to 
exist  in  the  Netherlands.  The  arrival  of  Alva, 
clothed  with  such  despotic  powers,  and  the 
atrocities  committed  by  him,  caused  the 
greatest  indigriation  in  the  Netherlands.  The 
Prince  of  Orange,  aided  by  the  Counts 
Egmont  and  Horn,  organized  a  party  to  re- 
sist him,  and  a  revolution  was  commenced 
which  lasted  for  forty  years,  affording  one  of 
the  blackest  chapters  in  the  history  of  Europe. 
The  name  of  Alva  stands  at  the  head  of  the 
list  of  men  who  have  wrought  desolation  and 
suffering  in  the  name  of  religon.  The  other 
European  states  protested,  and  Elizabeth,  in 
hot  indignation,  gave  aid  to  the  persecuted 
states. 

Philip  had  contracted  a  marriage,  after 
Mary's  death,  with  the  daughter  of  that  ter- 
rible woman  Catherine  de  IMedici,  widow  of 
Henr>'  H.  of  France,  and  there  is  much  rea- 
son to  believe  that  it  was  this  Duke  of  Alva 
who  planned  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew. There  were  sinister  conferences  be- 
tween Catherine,  Philip,  and  Alva,  and  little 
doubt  exists  that  the  hideous  tragedy  which 
occurred  in  Paris  on  the  night  of  August  24, 


I20  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

1572,  was  arranged  in  Madrid,  and  had  its  first 
inception  in  the  cruel  breast  of  Alva. 

There  had  not  been  much  love  existing  be- 
fore between  Philip  and  Elizabeth,  who  it  is 
said  had  refused  the  hand  of  her  Spanish 
brother-in-law.  But  after  her  interference  in 
the  Netherlands,  and  when  her  ships  were  in- 
tercepting and  waylaying  Spanish  ships 
returning  with  treasure  from  the  West,  and 
when  at  last  the  one  was  the  accepted  cham- 
pion of  the  Protestant,  and  the  other  of  the 
Catholic  cause,  they  became  avowed  enemies. 
Philip  resolved  to  prepare  a  mighty  armament 
for  the  invasion  of  England. 

In  1587  Elizabeth  sent  Sir  Francis  Drake 
to  reconnoiter  and  find  out  what  Philip  was 
doing.  He  appeared  with  twenty-five  ves- 
sels before  Cadiz.  Having  learned  all  he 
wanted,  and  burned  a  fleet  of  merchant  ves- 
sels, he  returned  to  his  Queen. 

In  ]\Iay,  1588,  a  fleet  of  one  hundred  and 
thirty  ships,  some  "  the  largest  that  ever 
plowed  the  deep,"  sailed  from  Lisbon  for  the 
English  coast.  We  may  form  some  idea  to- 
day of  what  must  have  been  the  feeling  in 
England  when  this  Armada,  unparalleled  in 
size,  appeared  in  the  English   Channel!     If 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  12 1 

Sir  Francis  Drake's  ships  were  fewer  and 
smaller,  he  could  match  the  Spaniards  in  au- 
dacity. He  sent  eight  tireships  right  in 
among  the  close-lying  vessels.  Then,  in  the 
confusion  which  followed,  while  they  were 
obstRicted  and  entangled  with  their  own 
fleet,  he  swiftly  attacked  them  with  such  vigor 
that  ten  ships  were  sunk  or  disabled,  and  the 
entire  fleet  was  demoralized.  Then  a  storm 
overtook  the  fleeing  vessels,  and  the  winds  and 
the  waves  completed  the  victory.  As  in  the 
Spanish  report  of  the  disaster  thirty-five  is  the 
number  of  ships  acknowledged  to  be  lost,  we 
may  imagine  how  great  was  the  destruction. 
So  ended  Philip's  invasion  of  England,  and 
the  great  Spanish  "  Armada." 

Philip  II.  died,  1598,  in  the  Palace  of  the 
Escurial  which  he  had  built,  and  with  that 
event  ends  the  story  of  Spain's  greatness. 
The  period  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
years,  including  the  reigns  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  of  Charles  V.,  and  of  Philip  II.,  is,  in 
a  way,  one  of  unmatched  splendor.  Spain 
had  not  like  England  by  slow  degrees  ex- 
panded into  great  proportions,  but  through 
strange  and  perfectly  fortuitous  circum- 
stances, she  had,  from  a  proud  obscurity,  sud- 


122  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

denly  leaped  into  a  position  of  commanding- 
power  and  magnificence.  Fortune  threw  into 
her  lap  the  greatest  prize  she  ever  had  to  be- 
stow, and  at  the  same  time  gave  her  two 
sovereigns  of  exceptional  qualities  and  abili- 
ties. The  story  of  this  double  reign  is  the 
romance,  the  fairy  tale  of  history.  Then 
came  the  magnificent  reign  of  Charles  V.  with 
more  gifts  from  fortune — the  imperial  crown, 
if  not  a  substantial  benefit  to  Spain,  still  bring- 
ing dignity  and  eclat.  But  under  this  glitter- 
ing surface  there  had  commenced  even  then 
a  decline.  Under  Philip  II.  she  was  still  mag- 
nificent, Europe  was  bowing  down  to  her,  but 
the  decline  was  growing  more  manifest;  and 
with  the  accession  of  his  puny  son,  Philip  III., 
there  was  little  left  but  a  brilliant  past,  which 
a  proud  and  retrospective  nation  was  going  to 
feed  upon  for  over  three  centuries.  But  it 
takes  some  time  for  such  dazzling  effulgence 
to  disappear.  The  glamour  of  the  Spanish 
name  was  going  to  last  a  long  time  and  pic- 
turesquely veil  her  decay.  The  memory  of 
such  an  ascendancy  in  Europe  nourished  the 
intense  national  pride  of  her  people.  The 
name  Castilian  took  on  a  new  significance. 
Nor  can  we  wonder  at  their  pride  in  the 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  123 

name  ''  Castilian."  Its  glory  was  not  the 
capricious  gift  of  fortune,  but  won  by  a  devo- 
tion, a  constancy,  and  a  fidelity  of  purpose 
which  are  unique  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
For  seven  hundred  years  the  race  for  which 
that  name  stands  had  kept  alive  the  national 
spirit,  while  their  land  was  occupied  by  an 
alien  civilization.  These  were  centuries  of 
privation  and  suffering  and  hardship;  but 
never  wavering  in  their  purpose,  and  by 
brave  deeds  which  have  filled  volumes,  they 
reclaimed  their  land  and  drove  out  the 
Moors. 

This  is  what  gives  to  the  name  "  Castilian," 
its  proud  significance.  But  when  degenerate 
Hidalgos  and  Grandees,  debauched  by  wealth 
and  luxury,  gloried  in  the  name;  when  by 
rapacity  and  cruelty  they  destroyed  the  lands 
their  valor  had  won;  and  when  the  Inquisition 
became  their  pastime  and  the  rack  and  the 
wheel  their  toys — then  the  name  Castilian  be- 
gan to  take  on  a  sinister  meaning.  Spain's 
most  glorious  period  was  not  when  she  was 
converting  the  Indies  and  Mexico  and  Peru 
into  a  hell,  not  when  Charies  V.  was  playing 
his  great  game  of  diplomacy  in  Europe,  but 
in  that  pre-Columbian  era  when  a  brave  and 


124  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

rugged  people  were  keeping  alive  their  na- 
tional life  in  the  mountains  of  the  Asturias. 
Well  may  Spain  do  honor  to  that  time  by  call- 
ing the  heir  to  her  throne  the  "  Prince  of  the 
Asturias! " 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  history  of  the  century  after  the 
death  of  Philip  II.  is  one  of  rapid  de- 
cline; with  no  longer  a  powerful  master- 
mind to  hold  the  state  together.  Every 
year  saw  the  court  at  Madrid  more  splen- 
did, and  the  people, — that  insignificant 
factor, — more  wretched,  and  sinking  deeper 
and  deeper  into  poverty.  In  fact,  in  spite 
of  the  fabulous  wealth  which  fortune  had 
poured  upon  her,  Spain  was  becoming  poor. 
But  nowhere  in  Europe  was  royalty  invested 
with  such  dignity  and  splendor  of  ceremonial, 
and  the  ambitious  Marie  de  Medici,  widow  of 
Henry  IV.,  was  glad  to  form  alliances  for  her 
children  with  those  of  Philip  HI.  The 
"  Prince  of  the  Asturias,"  who  was  soon  to 
become  Philip  IV.,  married  her  daughter,  Isa- 
bella de  Bourbon,  and  the  Infanta,  his  sister, 
was  at  the  same  time  married  to  the  young 
Louis  XIII.,  King  of  France. 

The    remnant    of    the    Moors    who    still 

125 


126  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

lingered  in  the  land  were  called  Moriscos; 
and  under  a  very  thin  surface  of  sub- 
mission to  Christian  Spain,  they  nursed 
bitter  memories  and  even  hopes  that  some 
miracle  would  some  day  restore  them  to  what 
was  really  the  land  of  their  fathers.  A  very 
severe  edict,  promulgated  by  Philip  II.,  com- 
pelling conformity  in  all  respects  with  Chris- 
tian living,  and — as  if  that  were  not  a  part  of 
Christian  living — forbidding  ablutions,  led  to 
a  serious  revolt.  And  this  again  led  to  the 
forcible  expulsion  of  every  Morisco  in  Spain. 

In  1609,  by  order  of  Philip  III.,  the  last  of 
the  Moors  were  conveyed  in  galleys  to  the 
African  coast  whence  they  had  come  just  nine 
hundred  years  before. 

In  a  narrative  so  drenched  with  tears,  it  is 
pleasant  to  hear  of  light-hearted  laughter. 
We  are  told  that  when  the  young  King  Philip 
III.  saw  from  his  window  a  man  striking  his 
forehead  and  laughing  immoderately  he  said: 
"  That  man  is  either  mad,  or  he  is  reading 
*  Don  Quixote  '  " — which  latter  was  the  case. 
But  the  story  written  by  Cervantes  did  more 
than  entertain.  Chivalry  had  lingered  in  the 
congenial  soil  of  Spain  long  after  it  had  disap>- 
peared  in  every  other  part  of  Europe;  but 


I'liilij)    I\.    ot    Sp.iiii. 
From  tli<-  portrait  l)y  \'<-las(iiic/.. 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAhV.  12 J 

when  in  the  person  of  Don  Quixote  it  was 
made  to  appear  so  utterly  ridiculous,  it  was 
heard  of  no  more. 

Philip  III.,  who  died  in  1621,  was  succeeded 
by  his  son  Philip  IV.  As  in  the  reign  of  his 
father  worthless  favorites  ruled,  while  a  profli- 
gate king  squandered  the  money  of  the  people 
in  lavish  entertainments  and  luxuries.  Much 
has  been  written  about  the  visit  of  Charles, 
Prince  of  Wales  (afterward  Charles  I.),  accom- 
panied by  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  at  his 
court;  whither  the  young  Prince  had  come 
disguised,  to  see  the  Infanta,  Philip's  sister, 
whom  he  thought  of  making  his  queen. 
Probably  she  did  not  please  him,  or  perhaps 
the  alliance  with  Protestant  England  was  not 
acceptable  to  the  pious  Catholic  family  of 
Philip.  At  all  events,  Henrietta,  sister  of 
Louis  XIII.  of  France,  was  his  final  choice, 
and  shared  his  terrible  misfortunes  a  few  years 
later. 

A  revolt  of  the  Catalonians  on  the  French 
frontier  led  to  a  difficulty  with  France,  which 
was  finally  adjusted  by  the  celebrated  "  treaty 
of  the  Pyrenees."  In  this  treaty  was  included 
the  marriage  of  the  young  King  Louis  XIV. 
and  Maria  Theresa,  daughter  of  Philip  IV., 


128  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

the  King  of  Spain.  The  European  Powers 
would  only  consent  to  this  union  upon  con- 
dition that  Louis  should  solemnly  renoun.ce 
all  claim  to  the  Spanish  crown  for  himself  and 
his  heirs;  which  promise  had  later  a  somewhat 
eventful  history. 

Seven  of  the  United  Provinces  had  achieved 
their  independence  during  the  reign  of  the 
third  Philip,  who  had  also  driven  out  of  his 
kingdom  six  hundred  thousand  Moriscos;  by 
far  the  most  skilled  and  industrious  portion  of 
the  community.  And  now,  at  the  close  of  the 
reign  of  Philip  IV.,  the  kingdom  was  further 
dimnished  by  the  loss  of  Portugal;  which,  in 
1664,  the  Lusitanians  recovered,  and  pro- 
claimed the  Duke  of  Braganza  King.  When 
we  add  to  this  the  loss  of  much  of  the  Nether- 
lands, and  of  the  island  of  Jamaica,  and  con- 
cessions here  and  there  to  France  and  to  Italy, 
it  will  be  obvious  that  a  process  of  contraction 
had  soon  followed  that  of  Spain's  phenome- 
nal expansion! 

During  the  reign  of  Carlos  II.,  who  suc- 
ceeded his  father  (1665),  Spain  was  still  fur- 
ther diminished  by  the  cession  to  Louis  XIV., 
in  1678,  of  more  provinces  in  the  Low  Coun- 
tries   and   also    of   the   region    now   known 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  1 29 

as  Alsace  and  Lorraine;  which,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, have  in  our  own  time  passed  from 
the  keeping  of  France  to  that  of  victorious 
Germany. 

In  the  year  1655  the  island  of  Jamaica  was 
captured  by  an  expedition  sent  out  by  Crom- 
well. It  was  between  the  years  1670  and  1686 
that  the  Spaniard  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  had 
their  first  collision  in  America.  St.  Augustine 
had  been  founded  in  1565,  and  the  old  Span- 
ish colony  was  much  disturbed  in  1663,  when 
Charles  II.  of  England  planted  an  English 
colony  in  their  near  neighborhood  (the  Caro- 
linas).  During  the  war  between  Spain  and 
England  at  the  time  above  mentioned,  feeling 
ran  high  between  Florida  and  the  Carolinas, 
and  houses  were  burned  and  blood  was  shed. 
Spain  had  felt  no  concern  about  the  little  Eng- 
lish colony  planted  on  the  bleak  New  England 
coast  in  1620.  Death  by  exposure  and  star- 
vation promised  speedily  to  remove  that.  But 
the  settlement  on  the  Carolinas  was  more  seri- 
ous, and  at  the  same  time  the  French  were 
planting  a  colony  of  their  own  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi.  The  "  lords  of  America  " 
began  to  feel  anxious  about  their  control  of 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.     The  cloud  was  a  very 


130  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

small  one,  but  it  was  not  to  be  the  last  whicH 
would  dim  their  skies  in  the  West. 

The  one  thing  which  gives  historic  impor- 
tance to  the  reign  of  Carlos  II.  is  that  it  marks 
the  close — the  ignominious  close — of  the  great 
Hapsburg  dynasty  in  Spain.  And  if  the  death 
of  Carlos,  in  1700,  was  a  melancholy  event,  it 
is  because  with  it  the  scepter  so  magnificently 
wielded  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  passed  to 
the  keeping  of  the  House  of  Bourbon,  whose 
Spanish  descendants  have,  excepting  for  two 
brief  intervals,  ruled  Spain  ever  since. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

The  last  centur}'  had  wroug-ht  great  changes 
in  European  conditions.  "  The  Holy  Roman 
Empire,"  after  a  thirty-years'  war  with 
Protestantism,  was  shattered,  and  the  Em- 
peror of  Germany  was  no  longer  the  head  of 
Europe.  Protestant  England  had  sternly 
executed  Charles  I.,  and  then  in  the  person  of 
James  H.  had  swept  the  last  of  the  Catholic 
House  of  Stuart  out  of  her  kingdom.  France, 
on  the  foundation  laid  by  Richelieu,  had  de- 
veloped into  a  powerful  despotism,  which  her 
King,  Louis  XIV.,  was  making  magnificent 
at  home  and  feared  abroad. 

For  Spain  it  had  been  a  century  of  steady 
decline,  with  loss  of  territory,  power,  and  pres- 
tige. No  longer  great  in  herself,  she  was 
regarded  by  her  ambitious  neighbor.  Louis 
XIV.,  as  only  a  make-weight  in  the  supremacy 
in  Europe  upon  which  he  was  determined. 
He  had  been  ravaging  the  enfeebled  German 
Empire,  and  now  a  friendly   fate  opened  a 


132  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

peaceful  door  through  which  he  might  make 
Spain  contribute  to  his  greatness. 

Carlos  II.  died  (1700)  without  an  heir. 
There  was  a  vacant  throne  in  Spain  to  which 
■ — on  account  of  Louis'  marriage,  years  before, 
with  the  Spanish  Princess  Maria  Theresa — 
his  grandson  Philip  had  now  the  most 
valid  claim.  The  other  claimant,  Archduke 
Karl,  son  of  Leopold,  Emperor  of  Germany, 
in  addition  to  having  a  less  direct  hereditary 
descent,  was  unacceptable  to  the  Spanish  peo- 
ple, who  had  no  desire  to  be  ruled  again 
by  an  occupant  of  the  Imperial  throne  of 
Germany. 

So,  as  Louis  wished  it,  and  the  Spanish  peo- 
ple also  wished  it,  there  was  only  one  obstacle 
to  his  design;  that  was  a  promise  made  at  the 
time  of  his  marriage  that  he  would  never  claim 
that  throne  for  himself  or  his  heirs.  But 
when  the  Pope,  after  "  prayerful  deliberation," 
absolved  him  from  that  promise  the  way  was 
clear.  This  grandson,  just  seventeen  years 
old,  was  proclaimed  Philip  V.,  King  of  Spain, 
and  Louis  in  the  fullness  of  his  heart  ex- 
claimed, "  The  Pyrenees  have  ceased  to 
exist!" 

Perhaps  it  would  have  been  better  for  the 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  133 

King  if  he  had  not  made  that  dramatic 
exclamation.  A  man  who  could  remove 
mountains  to  make  a  path  for  his  ambitions 
might  also  drain  seas!  England  took  warn- 
ing. She  had  been  quietly  bearing  his  insults 
for  a  long  time,  and  not  till  he  had  imperti- 
nently threatened  to  place  upon  her  throne 
the  Pretender,  the  exiled  son  of  James  II., 
had  she  joined  the  coalition  against  the 
French  King.  But  now  she  sent  more 
armies,  and  a  great  captain  to  re-enforce 
Prince  Eugene,  who  was  fighting  this  battle 
for  the  Archduke  Karl  and  for  Europe. 

But  Louis  had  reached  the  summit.  He 
was  to  go  no  higher  than  he  had  climbed  when 
he  uttered  that  vain  boast.  Philip  V.  was 
acknowledged  King  in  1702,  and  in  1704 
Blenheim  had  been  fought  and  won  by  Marl- 
borough, and  the  decline  of  the  Grand 
Monarque  had  commenced. 

The  war  against  him  by  a  combined  Europe 
now  became  the  war  of  the  ''  Spanish  Suc- 
cession." England  and  Holland  united  with 
Emperor  Leopold  to  curb  his  limitless  am- 
bition. Tlie  purpose  of  the  war  of  the  "  Span- 
ish Succession  "  was,  ostensibly,  to  place  the 
Austrian  Archduke  upon  the  throne  of  Spain; 


134  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

its  real  purpose  was  to  check  the  aUrming 
ascendancy  of  Louis  XIV.  in  Europe. 

It  lasted  for  years,  the  poor  young  King 
and  Queen  being  driven  from  one  city  to  an- 
other, while  the  Austrian  Archduke  was  at 
Madrid  striving  to  reign  over  a  people  who 
would  not  recognize  him. 

Spain  was  being  made  the  sport  of  three 
nations  in  pursuance  of  their  own  ambitious 
ends.  Her  land  was  being  ravaged  by  foreign 
armies,  recruited  from  three  of  her  own  dis- 
affected provinces;  while  a  young  King  with 
whom  she  was  well  satisfied  was  peremptorily 
ordered  to  make  way  for  one  Austria,  Eng- 
land, and  Holland  preferred.  It  was  a 
humiliating  proof  of  the  decline  in  national 
spirit,  and  the  old  Castilian  pride  must  have 
sorely  degenerated  for  such  things  to  be  pos- 
sible. 

Finally,  after  Louis  XIV.  had  once  more 
given  solemn  oath  that  the  crowns  of  France 
and  Spain  should  never  be  united,  the  "  Peace 
of  Utrecht  "  was  signed  (171 3).  But  the  pro- 
visions of  the  treaty  were  momentous  for 
Spain.  She  was  at  one  stroke  of  the  pen 
stripped  of  half  her  possessions  in  Europe. 
Philip  V.  was  acknowledged  King  of  Spain 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  135 

and  the  Indies.  But  Sicily,  with  its  regal 
title,  was  ceded  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy;  Milan, 
Naples,  Sardinia,  and  the  Netherlands  went 
to  Karl,  now  Emperor  Charles  VI.  of  Ger- 
many; while  Minorca  and  Gibraltar  passed  to 
the  keeping  of  England. 

No  one  felt  unmixed  satisfaction,  except 
perhaps  England.  The  Archduke  had  failed 
to  get  his  throne,  and  to  wear  the  double 
crown  like  Charles  V.  Louis  had  carried  his 
point.  He  had  succeeded  in  keeping  the 
kingdom  for  his  grandson.  But  that  king- 
dom was  dismembered,  and  had  shrunk  to  in- 
significant proportions  in  Europe,  while  Eng- 
land, most  fortunate  of  all,  had  carried  off  the 
key  to  the  Mediterranean.  That  little  rocky 
promontory  of  Gibraltar  was  potentially  of 
more  value  than  all  the  rest! 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  the  dynasty  of 
the  Bourbon  in  Spain.  Philip  was  succeeded, 
upon  his  death  in  1746,  by  his  son  Ferdinand 
VI.,  who  also  died,  in  1759,  and  was  succeeded 
by  his  brother,  Philip's  second  son,  who  was 
known  as  Carlos  III.  When  we  try  to  praise 
these  princes  of  the  wretched  Bourbon  line,  ft 
is  by  mention  of  the  evil  they  have  refrained 
from  doing  rather  than  the  good  they  have 


136  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

done.  So  Carlos  III.  is  said  to  have  done 
less  harm  to  Spain  than  his  predecessors.  He 
established  libraries  and  academies  of  science 
and  of  arts,  and  ruled  like  a  kind-hearted  gen- 
tleman, without  the  vices  of  his  recent  prede- 
cessors. His  severity  toward  the  Jesuits  and 
their  forcible  expulsion  from  Spain,  in  1767, 
are  said  to  have  been  caused  by  personal  re- 
sentment on  account  of  some  slanderous 
rumors  regarding  his  birth,  which  were  traced 
to  them. 


CHAPTER  XXL 

But  the  fate  of  Spain  was  not  now  in  the 
hands  of  her  Kings.  Were  they  good  or  evil 
she  was  destined  henceforth  to  drift  in  the 
currents  of  circumstance,  that  sternest  of 
masters,  to  whom  her  Kings  as  well  as  her 
people  would  be  obliged  helplessly  to  bow. 
All  that  she  now  possessed  outside  the  bor- 
ders of  her  own  kingdom  was  the  West  In- 
dies, her  colonies  in  America,  North  and 
South,  and  the  Philippines,  that  archipelago 
of  a  thousand  isles  in  the  southern  Pacific, 
where  Magellan  was  slain  by  the  savage  in- 
habitants after  he  had  discovered  it  (1520). 

Mexico  and  Peru  had  proved  to  be  inex- 
haustible sources  of  wealth,  and  when  the  gold 
and  silver  diminished,  the  Viceroys  in  these  and 
the  other  colonies  could  compel  the  people  to 
wring  rich  products  out  of  the  soil,  enough  to 
supply  Spain's  necessities.  The  inhabitants 
of  these  colonies,  composed  of  the  aboriginal 
races   with   an   admixture   of   Spanish,    had 

137 


138  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

been  treated  as  slaves  and  drudges  for  so  many 
centuries  that  they  never  dreamed  of  resist- 
ance, nor  questioned  the  justice  of  a  fate  which 
condemned  them  always  to  toil  for  Spain. 

In  the  North  the  feeble  colony  planted  in 
1620  had  expanded  into  thirteen  vigorous 
English  colonies.  France,  too,  had  been 
colonizing  in  America,  and  had  drawn  her 
frontier  line  from  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 
to  Canada.  In  1755  a  collision  occurred  be- 
tween England  and  France  over  their  Ameri- 
can boundaries.  By  the  year  1759,  France 
had  lost  Quebec  and  every  one  of  her  strong- 
holds, and  she  formed  an  alliance  with  Spain 
in  a  last  effort  to  save  her  vanishing  posses- 
sions in  America. 

Spain's  punishment  for  this  interference 
was  swift.  England  promptly  dispatched 
ships  to  Havana  and  to  the  Philippines;  and 
when  we  read  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  capturing 
Havana  and  the  adjacent  islands  on  one  side 
of  the  globe,  and  the  City  of  Manila  and  four- 
teen of  the  Philippines  on  the  other,  in  the 
midsummer  of  1762,  it  has  a  slightly  familiar 
sound.  And  when  the  old  record  further 
says,  the  "  conquest  in  the  West  Indies  cost 
many  precious  lives,  more  of  whom  were  de- 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPA/jV.  1 39 

stroyed  by  the  climate  than  by  the  enemy," 
and  still  again,  "  the  capture  of  j\lanila  was 
conducted  with  marvelous  celerity  and  judg- 
ment," we  begin  to  wonder  whether  we  are 
reading  the  dispatches  of  the  Associated 
Press  in  1898,  or  history! 

In  the  treaty  which  followed  these  victories, 
upon  condition  of  England's  returning  Ha- 
vana, and  all  the  conquered  territor}^  except- 
ing a  portion  of  the  West  India  Islands,  Spain 
ceded  to  her  the  peninsula  of  Florida;  while 
France,  who  was  obliged  to  give  to  England 
all  her  territory  east  of  the  Mississippi,  gave 
to  Spain  in  return  for  her  services  the  city  of 
New  Orleans,  and  all  her  territory  west  of  the 
great  river.  This  territory  was  retroceded 
to  France  by  Spain  in  the  year  1800,  by  the 
"  Treaty  of  Madrid,"  and  in  1803  was  pur- 
chased by  America  from  Napoleon,  under  the 
title  of  "  Louisiana." 

There  was  a  growing  irritation  in  the  Span- 
ish heart  against  England.  She  was  crowding 
Spain  out  of  North  America,  had  insinuated 
herself  into  the  West  India  Islands,  and  she 
was  mistress  of  Gibraltar.  So  it  was  with  no 
little  satisfaction  that  they  saw  her  involved  in 
a  serious  quarrel  with  her  American  colonies. 


I40  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

at  a  time  when  a  stubborn  and  incompetent 
Hanoverian  King  was  doing  his  best  to  de- 
stroy her.  The  hour  seemed  auspicious  for 
recovering  Gibraltar,  and  also  to  drive  Eng- 
land out  of  the  West  Indies.  The  alliance 
with  France  had  become  a  permanent  one, 
and  was  known  as  a  family  compact  between 
the  Bourbon  cousins  Louis  XV.  and  Carlos 
HI.  France  had  at  this  time  rather  distract- 
ing conditions  at  home;  but  she  was  thirsting 
for  revenge  at  the  loss  of  her  rich  American 
possessions,  and  besides,  a  sentimental  inter- 
est in  the  brave  people  who  had  proclaimed 
their  independence  from  the  mother  coun- 
try, and  were  fighting  to  maintain  it,  began  to 
manifest  itself.  It  was  fanned,  no  doubt,  by 
a  desire  for  England's  humiliation;  but  it 
assumed  a  form  too  chivalric  and  too  generous 
for  Americans  ever  to  discredit  by  unfriendly 
analysis  of  motive.  Spain  cared  little  for  the 
cause  of  the  colonies;  but  she  was  quite  will- 
ing to  help  them  by  worrying  and  diverting 
the  energies  of  England.  So  she  invested 
Gibraltar.  A  garrison  of  only  a  handful  of 
men  astonished  Europe  by  the  bravery  of  its 
defense.  Gibraltar  was  not  taken  by  the 
Bourbon    allies,    neither    were    the    English 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  141 

driven  out  of  the  West  Indies.  But  it  was  a 
satisfaction  to  Spain  to  see  her  humbled  by 
her  victorious  colonies! 

So  Carlos  III.  had  indirectly  assisted  in  the 
establishment  of  a  republic  on  the  confines  of 
his  Mexican  Empire;  apparently  unconscious 
of  the  contagion  in  the  word  independence. 
But  he  quickly  learned  this  to  his  sorrow. 
The  story  of  the  revolted  and  freed  colonies 
sped  on  the  wings  of  the  wind.  And  in  Peru 
a  brave  descendant  of  the  Incas  arose  as  a  De- 
liverer. He  led  sixty  thousand  men  into  a 
vain  fight  for  liberty.  Of  course  the  effort 
failed,  but  a  spirit  had  been  awakened  which 
might  be  smothered,  but  never  extinguished. 

Carlos  III.  died  in  1788  and  was  succeeded 
by  his  son  Carlos  IV. 

During  the  miserable  reign  of  this  miser- 
able King,  France  caught  the  infection  from 
the  free  institutions  in  America.  The  Repub- 
lic she  had  helped  to  create  was  fatal  to  mon- 
archy in  her  own  land.  A  revolution  ac- 
companied by  unparalleled  horrors  swept 
away  the  whole  tyrannous  system  of  centuries 
and  left  the  country  a  trembling  wreck — but 
free.  The  dream  of  a  republic  was  brief. 
Napoleon  gathered  the  imperfectly  organized 


142  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

government  into  his  own  hands,  then  by  suc- 
cessive and  rapid  steps  arose  to  Imperial 
power.  France  was  an  Empire,  and  adoringly 
submitted  to  the  man  who  swiftly  made  her 
great  and  feared  in  Europe.  She  had  another 
Charlemagne,  who  was  bringing  to  his  feet 
Kings  and  Princes,  and  annexing  half  of 
Europe  to  his  empire! 

Spain,  all  unconscious  of  His  designs,  and 
perhaps  thinking  this  invincible  man  might 
help  her  to  get  back  Gibraltar  and  to  drive 
the  English  out  of  the  West  Indies,  joined 
him  in  1804  in  a  war  against  Great  Britain; 
and  the  following  year  the  combined  fleets  of 
France  and  Spain  were  annihilated  by  Lord 
Nelson  off  Cape  Trafalgar.  Family  dissen- 
sions in  the  Spanish  royal  household  at  this 
time  were  opportune  for  Napoleon's  designs. 
Carlos  and  his  son  Ferdinand  were  engaged 
in  an  unseemly  quarrel.  Carlos  appealed  to 
Napoleon  regarding  the  treasonable  conduct 
and  threats  of  his  son.  Nothing  could  have 
better  suited  the  purposes  of  the  Emperor. 
The  fox  had  been  invited  to  be  umpire! 
French  troops  poured  into  Spain.  Carlos, 
under  protest,  resigned  in  favor  of  his  son, 
who  was  proclaimed  Ferdinand  VII.  (1807). 
The  young  King  was  then  invited  to  meet  the 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  143 

Emperor  for  consultation  at  Bayonne.  He 
found  himself  a  prisoner  in  France,  and  to 
Joseph  Bonaparte,  brother  of  the  Emperor, 
was  transferred  the  Crown  of  Spain. 

The  nation  seemed  paralyzed  by  the  swift- 
ness and  the  audacity  of  these  overturnings. 
But  soon  popular  indignation  found  expres- 
sion. Juntas  were  formed.  The  one  at  Se- 
ville, calling  itself  the  Supreme  Junta,  pro- 
claimed an  alliance  with  Great  Britain;  its 
purpose  being  the  expulsion  of  the  French 
from  their  kingdom. 

Spain  was  in  a  state  of  chaos.  Joseph  was 
not  without  Spanish  adherents,  and  there  was 
no  leader,  no  legitimate  head  to  give  consti- 
tutional stamp  to  the  acts  of  the  protesting 
people,  who  without  the  usual  formalities 
convoked  the  Cortes.  But  while  they  were 
groping  after  reforms,  and  while  Lord  Wel- 
lington was  driving  back  the  French,  Na- 
poleon had  met  his  reverse  at  Moscow,  and  a 
"  War  of  Liberation "  had  commenced  in 
Germany. 

The  grasp  upon  the  Spanish  throne  re- 
laxed. The  captive  King  had  permission  to 
return,  and  the  reign  of  Joseph  was  ended  by 
his  ignominious  flight  from  the  kingdom, 
with  one  gold-piece  in  his  pocket  (1814). 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

The  decade  between  1804  and  1814  had 
been  vefy  barren  in  external  benefits  to  Spain, 
with  her  King  held  in  "  honorable  captivity  " 
in  France,  and  the  obscure  Joseph  abjectly 
striving  to  please  not  his  subjects,  but  his  au- 
gust brother  Napoleon.  But  in  this  time  of 
chaos,  when  there  was  no  Bourbon  King,  no 
long-established  despotism  to  stifle  popular 
sentiment,  the  unsuspected  fact  developed 
that  Spain  had  caught  the  infection  of  free- 
dom. 

When,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Cortes  assumed 
all  the  functions  of  a  government,  that  body 
(in  181 2)  drew  up  a  new  Constitution  for 
Spain.  So  completely  did  this  remodel  the 
whole  administration,  that  the  most  despotic 
monarchy  in  Europe  was  transformed  into 
the  one  most  severely  limited. 

Great  was  the  surprise  of  Ferdinand  VII. 
when,  in  1814,  he  came  to  the  throne  of  his 
ejected   father   Carlos   IV.,   to  find   himself 

»44 


From  the  painting  by  C.  Alvarez  Dumont. 

Heroic   Combat   in    the    I'lilpit   of  the   Chiirch   of  St. 
Auf^ustine,   Saraj^ossa,    IS()<) 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  1 45 

called  upon  to  reign  under  a  Constitution 
which  made  Spain  ahnost  as  free  as  a  republic. 
He  promulgated  a  decree  declaring  the  Cortes 
illegal  and  rescinding  all  its  acts,  the  Consti- 
tution of  1812  included.  Then  when  he  had 
re-established  the  Inquisition,  which  had 
been  abolished  by  the  Cortes,  when  he  had 
publicly  burned  the  impertinent  Constitution, 
and  quenched  conspiracies  here  and  there,  he 
settled  himself  for  a  comfortable  reign  after 
the  good  old  arbitrary  fashion. 

The  Napoleonic  empire  having  been  effaced 
by  a  combined  Europe,  Ferdinand's  Bourbon 
cousins  were  in  the  same  way  restoring  the 
excellent  methods  of  their  fathers  in  France. 

But  there  was  a  spirit  in  the  air  which  was 
not  favorable  to  the  peace  of  Kings.  On  the 
American  coast  there  stood  "  Liberty  Enlight- 
ening the  World!"  A  growing,  prosperous 
republic  was  a  shining  example  of  what  might 
be  done  by  a  brave  resistance  to  oppression 
and  a  determined  spirit  of  independence. 

The  pestilential  leaven  of  freedom  had  been 
at  work  while  monarchies  slept  in  security. 
Ferdinand  discovered  that  not  only  was  there 
a  seditious  sentiment  in  his  own  kingdom,  but 
every  one  of  his  American  colonies  was  in 


146  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN". 

open  rebellion,  and  some  were  even  daring  to 
set  up  free  governments  in  imitation  of  the 
United  States. 

Not  only  was  Ferdinand's  sovereignty 
threatened,  but  the  very  principle  of  monarchy 
itself  was  endangered. 

Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia  formed  them- 
selves into  a  league  for  the  preservation  of 
what  they  were  pleased  to  call  "  The  Divine 
Right  of  Kings."  It  was  the  attack  upon  this 
sacred  principle,  which  was  the  germ  of  all 
this  mischievous  talk  about  freedom.  They 
called  their  league  "  The  Holy  Alliance,"  and 
what  they  proposed  to  do  was  to  stamp  out 
free  institutians  in  the  germ. 

In  pursuance  of  this  purpose,  in  181 9  there 
appeared  at  Cadiz  a  large  fleet,  assembled  for 
the  subjugation  of  Spanish  America. 

But  there  was  an  Anglo-Saxon  America, 
which  had  a  preponderating  influence  in  that 
land  now;  and  there  was  also  an  Anglo-Saxon 
race  in  Europe  which  had  its  own  views 
about  the  "  Divine  Right  of  Kings,"  and  also 
concerning  the  mission  of  the  "  Holy  Alli- 
ance." 

The  right  of  three  European  Powers  to  re- 
store to  Spain  her  revolted  colonies  in  America 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  I47 

was  denied  by  President  Monroe;  not  upon 
the  ground  of  Spain's  inhumanity,  and  the  in- 
herent right  of  the  colonies  to  an  independ- 
ence which  they  might  achieve.  Such  was 
the  nature  of  England's  protest,  through  her 
Minister  Canning.  But  President  Monroe's 
contention  rested  on  a  much  broader  ground. 
In  a  message  delivered  in  1823  he  uttered 
these  words:  "  European  Powers  must  not  ex- 
tend their  political  systems  to  any  portion  of 
the  American  continent."  The  meaning  of 
this  was  that  America  has  been  won  for  free- 
dom; and  no  European  Power  will  be  per- 
mitted to  establish  a  monarchy,  nor  to  coerce 
in  any  way,  nor  to  suppress  inclinations  to- 
ward freedom,  in  any  part  of  the  Western 
Hemisphere.  This  is  the  "  Monroe  Doc- 
trine"; a  doctrine  which,  although  so  start- 
ling in  1832,  had  in  1896  become  so  firmly  im- 
bedded in  the  minds  of  the  people,  that 
Congress  decided  it  to  be  a  vital  principle  of 
American  policy. 

But  there  was  another  and  more  serious 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  proposed  plan  for 
subjugating  the  Spanish-American  colonies. 
The  army  assembled  by  the  Holy  Alliance  at 
Cadiz  was  an  offense  to  the  people  who  had 


148  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

seen  their  Constitution  burned  and  their  hopes 
of  a  freer  giovernment  destroyed.  Officers 
and  troops  refused  to  embark,  and  joined  a 
concourse  of  disaffected  people  at  Cadiz.  A 
smothered  popular  sentiment  burst  forth  into 
a  series  of  insurrections  throughout  Spain, 
and  the  astonished  Ferdinand  was  compelled, 
in  1820,  to  acknowledge  the  Constitution  of 
1 812.  This  was  not  upholding  the  principle 
of  the  "  Divine  Right  of  Kings  " !  So,  under 
the  direction  of  the  Holy  Alliance,  a  French 
army  of  one  hundred  thousand  men  moved 
into  Spain,  took  possession  of  her  capital,  and 
for  two  years  administered  her  affairs  under  a 
regency,  and  then  reinstated  Ferdinand,  leav- 
ing a  French  army  of  occupation. 

In  this  contest  two  distinct  political  parties 
had  developed — the  Liberal  party  and  the 
party  of  Absolutism.  As  Ferdinand  VII.  be- 
came the  choice  of  the  Liberals,  and  his 
brother  Don  Carlos  of  the  party  of  Absolut- 
ism, we  must  infer  either  that  it  was  a  Liberal- 
ism of  a  very  mild  type,  or  that  Ferdinand's 
views  had  been  modified  since  the  "  Holy 
Alliance "  took  his  kingdom  into  its  own 
keeping.  But  his  brother  Carlos  was  the 
adored  of  the  Absolutists,  and  a  plot  was  made 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  149 

to  compel  Ferdinand  to  abdicate  in  his  favor. 
This  was  the  first  of  the  Cadist  plots,  which, 
with  little  intermission,  and  always  in  the  in- 
terest of  despotism  and  bigotry,  have 
menaced  the  safety  and  well-being  of  Spain 
ever  since.  From  the  year  1825  to  1898  there 
has  been  always  a  Don  Carlos  to  trouble  the 
political  waters  in  that  land. 

So  the  mission  of  the  "  Holy  Alliance  "  had 
failed.  Instead  of  rehabilitating  the  sacred 
principle  of  the  "  Divine  Right  of  Kings," 
they  saw  a  powerful  liberal  party  established 
in  a  kingdom  which  was  the  very  stronghold 
of  despotism.  And  instead  of  stamping  out 
free  institutions,  six  Spanish-American  colo- 
nies had  been  recognized  as  free  and  inde- 
pendent states  (1826).  Spain  had  for  three 
centuries  ruled  the  richest  and  the  fairest  land 
on  the  earth.  She  had  shown  herself  utterly 
undeserving  of  the  opportunity,  and  unfit  for 
the  responsibilities  imposed  by  a  great  colonial 
empire.  She  had  sown  the  wind  and  now  she 
reaped  the  whirlwind.  She  did  not  own  a 
foot  of  territory  on  the  continent  she  had  dis- 
covered! 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

In  1833  King  Ferdinand  VII.  died,  leaving- 
one  child,  the  Princess  Isabella,  who  was 
three  years  old.  Here  was  the  opportunity 
for  the  adherents  of  Don  Carlos. 

The  "  Salic  law "  had  been  one  of  the 
Gothic  traditions  of  ancient  Spain,  and  had 
with  few  exceptions  been  in  force  until  1789; 
when  Carlos  IV.  issued  a  "  Pragmatic  Sanc- 
tion," establishing  the  succession  through  the 
female  as  well  as  the  male  line;  and  on  April 
6,  1830,  King  Ferdinand  confirmed  this  de- 
cree; so,  when  Isabella  was  born,  October  10, 
1830,  she  was  heiress  to  the  throne,  unless  her 
ambitious  uncle,  Don  Carlos,  could  set  aside 
the  decree  abrogating  the  old  Salic  law,  and 
reign  as  Carlos  IV. 

In  the  three  years  before  his  brother's  death 
he  had  laid  his  plans  for  the  coming  crisis. 
Isabella  was  proclaimed  Queen  under  the 
regency  of  her  depraved  mother  Christina. 
The  extreme  of  the  Catholic  party,  and  of  the 
reactionary  or  absolutist  party,  flocked  about 

150 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  15 1 

the  Carlist  standard;  while  the  party  of  the  in- 
fant Queen  was  the  rallying  point  for  the  lib- 
eral and  progressive  sentiment  in  the  king- 
dom; and  her  cause  had  the  support  of  the 
new  reform  government  of  Louis  Philippe  in 
France,  and  of  lovers  of  freedom  elsewhere. 

The  party  of  the  Queen  triumphed.  But 
the  Carlists  survived;  and,  like  the  Bourbons 
in  France,  have  ever  since  in  times  of  political 
peril  been  a  serious  element  to  be  reckoned 
with. 

During  the  infancy  of  the  Queen,  Spain  was 
the  prey  of  unceasing  party  dissensions;  Don 
Carlos  again  and  again  trying  to  overthrow 
her  government,  and  again  and  again  being 
driven  a  fugitive  over  the  Pyrenees;  while 
the  Queen  Regent,  who  was  secretly  married 
to  her  Chamberlain,  the  son  of  a  tobacconist 
in  Madrid,  was  bringing  disgrace  and  odium 
upon  the  Liberal  party  which  she  was  sup- 
posed to  lead. 

In  1843  the  Cortes  declared  that  the  Queen 
had  attained  her  majority.  Her  disgraced 
mother  was  driven  out  of  the  country  and  Isa- 
bella II.  ascended  her  throne.  Isabella  had  a 
younger  sister,  Maria  Louisa,  and  in  1846  the 
double  marriage  of  these  two  children  was 


1 52  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

celebrated  with  great  splendor  at  Madrid. 
The  Queen  was  married  to  her  cousin  Don 
Francisco  d'Assisi,  and  her  sister  to  the  Duke 
de  Montpensier,  fifth  son  of  Louis  Philippe. 

If,  upon  the  birth  of  Liberalism  in  Spain, 
that  kingdom  could  have  been  governed  by  a 
wise  and  competent  sovereign,  the  conclud- 
ing chapters  of  this  narrative  might  have  been 
very  dififerent.  No  time  could  have  been  less 
favorable  for  a  radical  change  in  policy  than 
the  period  during  which  Isabella  II.  was 
Queen  of  Spain.  Personally  she  was  all  that 
a  woman  and  a  Queen  should  not  be.  With 
apparently  not  an  exalted  desire  or  ambition 
for  her  country,  this  depraved  daughter  of  a 
depraved  mother  pursued  her  downward 
course  until  1868,  when  the  nation  would  bear 
no  more.  A  revolution  broke  out.  Isabella, 
with  her  three  children,  fled  to  France  and 
there  was  once  more  a  vacant  throne  in  Spain. 

The  hopes  of  the  Carlists  ran  high.  But 
the  Cortes  came  to  an  unexpected  decision. 
They  would  have  no  Spanish  Bourbon,  be  he 
Carlist  or  Liberal.  The  reigning  dynasty  in 
Italy  was  at  this  moment  the  adored  of  the 
Liberals  in  Europe.  So  they  offered  the 
Crown   to   Amadeo,    second    son    of   Victor 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  153 

Emmanuel,  King  of  Italy,  Three  years  were 
quite  sufficient  for  this  experiment.  The 
young  Amadeo  was  as  glad  to  take  ofif  his 
crown  and  to  leave  his  kingdom,  as  the  people 
were  to  have  him  do  so.     He  abdicated  in 

1873- 
The  Liberal  party  had  been  regretting  their 

loss  of  opportunity  in  1870.  France  had  passed 
through  many  political  phases  in  the  last  ferw 
years,  and  the  present  French  Republic  had 
just  come  into  existence.  Again  Spain  caught 
the  contagion  from  her  neighbor,  and  Spanish 
Liberalism  became  Spanish  Rcpnhlkanism. 

\A'hen  Castelar,  that  patriotic  and  saga- 
cious statesman,  friend  of  Garibaldi,  of  ]\Iaz- 
zini,  and  of  Kossuth,  led  this  movement,  many 
hopefully  believed  the  political  millennium 
was  at  hand,  when  Spain  was  about  to  join  the 
brotherhool  of  Republics!  But  something 
more  than  a  great  leader  is  needed  to  create  a 
Republic.  The  magic  of  Castelar's  eloquence, 
the  purity  of  his  character,  and  the  force  of 
his  convictions  were  powerless  to  hold  in 
stable  union  the  conflicting  elements  with 
which  he  had  to  deal.  The  Carlists  were 
scheming,  and  the  Cortes  was  driven  to  an 
immediate  decision. 


154  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

The  fugitive  Queen  Isabella  had  with  her  in 
exile  a  young  son  Alfonso,  seventeen  years  of 
age.  Alfonso  was  invited  to  return  upon  the 
sole  condition  that  his  mother  should  be  ex- 
cluded from  his  kingdom.  An  insurrection 
which  was  being  fomented  by  Don  Carlos  II. 
led  to  this  action  of  the  Cortes,  which  was  per- 
haps the  wisest  possible  under  the  circum- 
stances. The  young  Prince  of  the  legitimate 
Bourbon  line  was  proclaimed  King  Alfonso 
XII.  in  1874. 

A  romantic  maiTiage  with  his  cousin  Mer- 
cedes, daughter  of  the  Duke  de  Montpensier, 
to  whom  he  was  deeply  attached,  speedily 
took  place.  Only  five  months  later  Mercedes 
died  and  was  laid  in  the  gloomy  Escurial.  A 
marriage  was  then  arranged  with  Christina, 
an  Austrian  Archduchess,  who  was  brought  to 
Madrid,  and  there  was  another  marriage  cele- 
brated with  much  splendor.  The  infant 
daughter,  who  was  born  a  few  years  later,  was 
named  Mercedes;  a  loving  tribute  to  the 
adored  young  Queen  he  had  lost,  which  did 
credit  as  much  to  Christina  as  to  Alfonso. 

The  hard  school  of  exile  had,  no  doubt, 
been  an  advantage  to  Alfonso;  and  at  the  out- 
set of  his  reigii  he  won  the  confidence  of  the 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  155 

Liberals  by  saying  "  he  wished  them  to  un- 
derstand he  was  the  first  RepubHcan  in 
Europe ;  and  when  they  were  tired  of  him  they 
had  only  to  tell  him  so,  and  he  would  leave  as 
quickly  as  Amadeo  had  done."  There  was 
not  time  to  test  the  sincerity  of  these  assur- 
ances. Alfonso  XII.  died  in  1885,  and  joined 
Mercedes  and  his  long  Hne  of  predecessors  in 
the  Escurial.  Five  months  later  his  son  was 
born,  and  the  throne  which  had  been  filled  by 
the  little  ISIercedes  passed  to  the  boy  who  was 
proclaimed  Alfonso  XIII.  of  Spain,  under  the 
Regency  of  his  mother  Queen  Christina. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
the  foreign  dominions  of  Spain,  although  re- 
duced, were  still  a  vast  and  imperial  posses- 
sion. The  colonial  territory  over  which  Al- 
fonso XIII.  was  to  have  sovereignty  at  the 
close  of  that  century,  consisted  of  the  Philip- 
pines, the  richest  of  the  East  Indies;  Cuba,  the 
richest  of  the  West  Indies;  Porto  Rico,  and  a 
few  outlying  groups  of  islands  of  no  great 
value. 

Nowhere  had  the  Constitution  of  1812 
awakened  more  hope  than  in  Cuba;  and  from 
the  setting  aside  of  that  instrument  by 
Ferdinand  VI.  dates  the  existence  of  an  in- 
surgent party  in  that  beautiful  but  most 
unhappy  island.  Ages  of  spoliation  and 
cruelty  and  wrong  had  done  their  work.  The 
iron  of  oppression  had  entered  into  the  soul 
of  the  Cuban.  There  was  a  deep  exaspera- 
tion which  refused  to  be  calmed.  From 
thenceforth  annexation  to  the  United  States, 
or  else  a  "  Cuba  Libre,"  was  the  deteiTnined, 
and  even  desperate  aim. 

156 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  157 

After  a  ten-years'  war,  1868-78,  the  people 
yielded  to  what  proved  a  delusive  promise  of 
home-rule.  How  could  Spain  bestow  uf>on 
her  colony  what  she  did  not  possess  herself? 
When  in  1881  she  tried  to  pacify  Cuba  by  per- 
mitting that  island  to  send  six  Senators  to  sit 
in  the  Spanish  Cortes,  it  was  a  phantom  of  a 
phantom.  There  was  no  outlet  for  the  na- 
tional will  in  Spain  itself.  Her  Cortes  was 
not  a  national  assembly,  and  its  members  were 
^wt  the  choice  of  the  people.  How  much  less 
must  they  be  so  then  in  Cuba,  where  they 
were  only  men  of  straw  selected  by  the  home 
government,  for  the  purpose  of  defeating — 
not  expressing — the  popular  will?  The  emp- 
tiness of  this  gift  was  soon  discovered.  Then 
came  a  shorter  conflict,  which  was  only  a  pre- 
lude to  the  last. 

A  handful  of  ragged  revolutionists,  igno- 
rant of  the  arts  of  war,  commenced  the  final 
struggle  for  liberty  on  February  24,  1895, 
under  the  leadership  of  Jose  Marti.  At  the 
end  of  two  years  a  poorly  armed  band  of  guer- 
rilla soldiers  had  waged  a  successful  contest 
against  235,000  well-equipped  troops,  sup- 
ported by  a  militia  and  a  navy,  and  maintained 
by  supplies  from  Spain;  had  adopted  a  Con- 


158  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

stitution,  and  were  asking  for  recognition  as 
a  free  Republic.  The  Spanish  commander 
Martinez  Campos  was  superseded  by  General 
Weyler  (1895),  and  a  new  and  severer  method 
was  inaugurated  in  dealing  with  the  stubborn 
revolutionists,  but  with  no  better  success  than 
before.  In  August,  1897,  an  insurrection 
troke  out  anew  in  the  PhiHppines,  and  Spain 
was  in  despair. 

America  calmly  resisted  all  appeals  for  an 

nexation  or  for  intervention  in  Cuba.     Sym 

pathy  for  Cuban  patriots  was  strong  in  th( 

hearts  of  the  people,  but  the  American  Gov 

emment  steadfastly  maintained  an  attitude  0 

strict  neutrality  and  impartiality,  and  with  un 

exampled  patience  saw  a  commerce  amount 

ing  annually  to  one  hundred  millions  of  dollar 

wiped  out  of  existence,  her  citizens  reduced  t( 

want  by  the  destruction  of  their  property ,- 

some   of   them   lying   in   Spanish    dungeon 

subjected  to  barbarities  which  were  worthy  c 

the  Turkish  Janizaries;  our  fleets  used  as 

coastguard  and  a  police,  in  the  protection  c 

Spanish  interests,  and  more  intolerable  tha 

all  else,  our  hearts  wrung  by  cries  of  anguis 

at  our  very  doors ! 

But  when  General  Weyler  inaugurated 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  I59 

system  for  the  deliberate  starvation  of  thirty 
thousand  "  Reconcentrados,"  an  innocent 
peasantry'  driven  from  their  homes  and  herded 
in  cities,  there  to  perish,  the  limit  of  patience 
was  reached.  It  was  this  touch  of  human 
pity — this  last  and  intolerable  strain  upon  our 
sympathies — which  turned  the  scale. 

While  a  profound  feeling-  of  indignation  was 
prevailing  on  account  of  these  revolting 
crimes  against  humanity,  the  battleship  Maine 
was,  by  request  of  Consul  General  Lee  at  that 
place,  dispatched  to  the  harbor  of  Havana  to 
guard  American  citizens  and  interests.  The 
sullen  reception  of  the  Maiyie  was  followed  on 
February  15,  1898,  by  a  tragedy  which 
shocked  the  world.  Whether  the  destruc- 
tion of  that  ship  and  the  death  of  266  brave 
men  was  from  internal  or  external  causes  was 
a  very  critical  question.  It  was  submitted  to 
a  court  of  inquiry  which,  after  long  delibera- 
tion, rendered  the  decision  that  the  cause  was 
— external. 

It  looked  dark  for  lovers  of  peace!  Presi- 
dent McKinley  exhausted  all  the  resources  of 
diplomacy  before  he  abandoned  hope  of  a 
peaceful  adjustment  which  would  at  the  same 
time   compel   justice   to   the   Cuban   people. 


l6o  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

But  on  April  25,   1898,  it  was  declared  that 
war  existed  between  Spain  and  America. 

Less  than  a  week  after  this  declaration,  in 
the  early  morning  of  Alay  i,  a  victory  over  the 
Spanish  fleet  at  Manila  was  achieved  by  Com- 
modore Dewey,  which  made  him  virtual  master 
of  the  Philippines;  and  just  two  months  later, 
July  I  and  2  were  made  memorable  by  two 
engagements  in  the  West  Indies,  resulting,  the 
one  in  the  defeat  of  the  Spanish  land  forces 
at  San  Juan,  and  the  other  in  the  complete 
annihilation  of  Admiral  Cervera's  fleet  in  the 
Bay  of  Santiago  de  Cuba — misfortunes  so 
overwhelming  that  overtures  for  peace  were 
quickly  received  at  Washington  from  Madrid; 
and  the  Spanish-American  War  was  over. 

The  colonial  empire  of  Spain  was  at  an 
end.  The  kingdom  over  which  Alfonso  XIII. 
was  soon  to  reign  had  at  a  stroke  lost  the 
Spanish  Indies  in  the  West,  and  the  Philip- 
pines in  the  far  East.  To  America  was  con- 
fided the  destiny  of  these  widely  separated 
possessions,  Porto  Rico  being  permanently 
ceded  to  the  United  States;  while,  according 
to  the  avowed  purpose  at  the  outset  of  the  war, 
Cuba  and  the  islands  in  the  Pacific,  as  soon  as 
fitted  for  self-government,  were  to  be  given  inta 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN.  l6l 

their  own  keeping ;  a  promise  which  in  the  case 
of  Cuba  has  already  been  redeemed,  all  pos- 
sible haste  being  made  to  prepare  the  Philip- 
pines for  a  similar  responsibility  and  destiny. 
The  quickness  with  which  cordial  relations 
have   been   re-established  between  Spain    and 
the  United  States  is  most  gratifying;  and  too 
much   praise   cannot   be   bestowed  upon   that 
proud,  high-spirited  people,  who  have  accepted 
the  results  of  the  war  in  a  spirit  so  admirable. 
In  the  loss  of  her  American  colonies,  Spain 
has  been  paying  a  debt  contracted  in  the  days 
of  her  dazzling  splendor — the  time  of  the  great 
Charles    and    of    Philip    II., — a    kind    of    in- 
debtedness  which    in   the   case  of   nations   is 
never  forgiven,  but  must  be  paid  to  the  utter- 
most farthing.     If  history  teaches  anything,  it 
is  that  the  nations  which  have  been  cruel  and 
unjust  sooner  or  later  must  "  drink  the  cup  of 
the  Lord's   fury,"  just  as   surely  as  did  the 
Assyrians   of   old.      Another   thing   which   is 
quite   as   obvious   is   that   the   nations  of  the 
earth   to-day   must   accept   the   ideals   of   the 
advancing  tide  of  modern  civilization,  or  per- 
ish!     A  people  whose  national   festival   is   a 
bull-fight,  has  still  something  to  learn.     Much 
of  mediaevalism  still  lingers  in  the  methods  and 


l62  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN. 

ideals  of  Spain.  In  the  time  of  her  opulence 
and  splendor  these  methods  and  ideals  were 
hers.  So  she  believes  in  them  and  clings  to 
them  still.  She  has  been  the  victim  of  a 
vicious  political  system,  to  which  an  intensely- 
proud,  patriotic,  and  brave  people  have  be- 
lieved they  must  be  loyal. 

In  no  other  land — as  we  have  seen — is  the 
national  spirit  so  strong.  Certainly  nowhere 
else  has  it  ever  been  subjected  to  such  strain 
and  survived.  And  this  intense  loyalty,  this 
overwhelming  pride  of  race,  this  magnificent 
valor,  have  all  been  summoned  to  uphold  a 
poor,  perishing,  vicious  political  system. 

But  the  Zeitgeist  is  contagious.  And  at 
no  time  has  its  influence  in  this  conservative 
kingdom  been  so  apparent  as  since  the  Span- 
ish-American War;  soon  after  this  was  over, 
Alfonso  ascended  the  throne  of  his  fathers. 
The  important  question  of  his  marriage  after 
long  consideration  was  decided  by  himself, 
when  he  selected  an  English  Princess,  niece 
of  Edward  VII.,  for  his  future  Queen.  The 
Princess  Ena  is  the  daughter  of  Princess  Bea- 
trice,— youngest  child  of  Queen  Victoria, — 
and  Prince  Henry  of  Battenberg,  who  was 
killed  some  years  ago  during  one  of  the  Kaffir 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN:  163 

^vars  in  South  Africa.  A  royal  marriage 
uniting  Protestant  England  and  Catholic 
Spain  would  at  one  time  have  cost  a  throne 
and  perhaps  a  head;  and  the  cordiality,  and 
even  enthusiasm,  with  which  this  union  has 
been  greeted  in  England  shows  what  seas  of 
prejudice  have  been  sailed  through  and  what 
continents  of  sectarian  differences  have  been 
left  behind ;  proving  that  the  Zeitgeist  has  been 
busy  in  England  as  well  as  in  Spain. 

The  royal  marriage  of  these  two  children — 
(the  King  having  just  passed  his  twentieth 
birthday) — attended  by  the  traditional  for- 
malities, and  a  revival  of  almost  mediaeval 
splendor,  took  place  at  Madrid,  June  i,  1906. 
The  many  romantic  features  attending  the 
courtship  of  the  boy  King  and  his  English 
girl-bride  invested  the  occasion  with  a  pic- 
turesque interest  for  the  whole  world.  And 
yet — impossible  as  it  would  have  seemed — 
there  existed  some  one  degenerate  enough  to 
convert  it  into  a  ghastly  tragedy.  While  re- 
turning to  the  royal  palace  over  flower-strewn 
streets,  after  the  conclusion  of  the  marriage 
ceremony,  a  bomb  concealed  in  a  bouquet  was 
thrown  from  an  upper  window,  hitting  the 
royal  coach  at  which  it  was  directly  aimed. 


164  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN: 

The  young  King  and  Queen  escaped  as  if  by 
a  miracle  from  the  wreck;  and  the  destruction 
intended  for  them  bore  death  and  mutilation 
to  scores  of  innocent  people  in  no  wise  con- 
nected with  the  Government;  and  Madrid,  at 
the  moment  of  her  supreme  rejoicing,  was  con- 
verted into  a  blood-stained,  mourning  city. 

Never  did  anarchistic  methods  seem  so  ut- 
terly divorced  from  intelligence  as  in  this  last 
attempt  at  regicide.  If  it  had  succeeded,  an 
infant-nephew  would  have  been  King  of  Spain, 
with  a  long  regency,  perhaps,  of  some  well- 
seasoned  Castilian  of  the  old  school ! 

There  was  an  incident  in  connection  with 
this  marriage  which  deeply  touches  the  Ameri- 
can heart.  The  special  envoy,  bearing  a  letter 
of  congratulation  to  the  King  from  President 
Roosevelt,  was  received  with  a  warmth  and 
consideration  far  exceeding  what  was  required 
by  diplomatic  usage,  and  the  stars  and  stripes 
helping  to  adorn  Madrid  for  the  great  festival 
gave  assurance  that  Spain  and  the  United 
States  are  really  friends  again. 


LIST  OF   VISIGOTH   KINGS. 


A.  D, 

Ataulfus, 411-415 

Wallia, 415-420 

Theodored, 420-451 

Thorismund, 451-452 

Theodoric  I.  (Defeated  Attila),  .        .        .  452-466 

Evaric  (Completed  Gothic  Conquest  in  Spain),  466-483 

Alaric, 483-506 

Gesaleic, 506-511 

Theodoric  II 511-522 

Amalaric, 522-531 

Theudis 531-548 

Theudisel, 548-549 

Agilan 549-554 

Athanagild  I., 554-567 

Liuval., 567-570 

Leovigild 570-587 

Recared  1 587-601 

Liuva  II 601-603 

Witteric, 603-610 

Gundemar, 610-612 

Sisebert, 612-621 

Recared  II.  (3  months). 

Swintila 621-631 

Sisenand 631-636 

Chintila, 636-640 

Tulga, 640-642 

165 


11-6  LIST  OF   VISIGOTH  KINGS. 

A.   D. 

Chindaswind, 642-649 

Receswind, 649-672 

Wamba, 672-680 

Ervigius, 680-687 

Egica  (son  of  Wamba) 687-701 

Witiza, 701-709 

Roderick, 709-711 

Theodomir  [  Kings  without  a  kingdom  ]  '  '"-743 

Athanagild  IL,  >  <  .  743-755 


KINGS   OF  THE   ASTURIAS  AND 
LEON. 


A.  D. 

Pelayo  (of  Royal  Gothic  birth) yiS 

Favila  (son  of  above), 737 

Alfonso  I.  (son-in-law  of  Pelayo),  ....  739 

Fruela  I.  (son  of  Alfonso), 757 

Aurelio, 76S 

^lauregato, 774 

Bermudo  1 788 

Alfonso  II., 791 

Ramiro  I., 842 

Ordoiio  I., 850 

Alfonso  III 866 

Garcia,       .........  qio 

Ordoiio  II., 914 

Fruela  II., 923 

Alfonso  IV., 925 

Ramiro  II., 930 

Ordono  III., 950 

Sancho  I., 955 

Ramiro  III., 967 

Bermudo  II., 982 

Alfonso  v., 999 

Bermudo  III., 1027 

Fernando  I.  (also  King  of  Castile),         ,        .        .  1037 

Alfonso  VI., 1065 

Urraca,      .........  1109 

Alfonso  VII.  (also  King  of  Castile),       .        .        .  1126 

167 


1 68     KINGS  OF  THE  ASTURIAS  AND  LEON. 


Fernando  II 

A.  D. 

.    1157 

Alfonso  IX.  (Aided  Conquest  of  Moors), 

.     1188 

Fernando  III., 

.    1230 

LEON  AND  CASTILE   UNITED, 

Alfonso  X.  {el  sabio), 

1252 

Sancho  IV 

.    1284 

Fernando  IV.,  .... 

.     1295 

Alfonso  XI 

13x2 

Pedro  I.  (.?/^r«^/),  . 

1350 

Enrique  II.,       . 

.    1369 

Juan  I.,      . 

1379 

Enrique  IV.,      .... 

1454 

Isabel  I.  (married  to  Fernando  11. 

of  Aragon), 

1474 

CASTILE  AND   ARAGON  UNITED. 

Carlos  I.  (Charles  I.    Elected  Charles  V.  of  Ger- 
many,' 1519), 1516 

Philip  II., 1556 

Philip  III., 1593 

Philip  IV 1621 

Carlos  II., 1665 


HOUSE  OF  BOURBON. 


Philip  v., 

1700 

Fernando  VI.,  . 

>                0 

.     1746 

Carlos  III.,        .... 

■     1759 

Carlos  IV., 

.     1788 

Ferdinand  VII. ,        .        .        . 

1799 

Joseph  Bonaparte,    . 

1806 

Ferdinand  VII.  (reinstated),    . 

1814 

Isabella  II.  (dethroned,  186S), 

1843 

Alfonso  XII.,    .... 

1874 

Alfonso  XIII., 

1885 

INDEX. 


Abbasides,  66,  67 
Abd-el-Rahman  1,  66,  67,  68, 

69,  72 
Abd-el-Rahman  II,  72,  73,  74 
Abd-el-Rahman  III,  74 
Abdul  Hassan,  105,  106 
Acropolis,  92 
Actium,  27 
^neas,  12 
yEtius,  36 
Ahab,  12 
Alaric,  31 
Alcazar,  89 
Alexander,  13 
Alfonso  I,  63,  64,  65,  78 
Alfonso  III,  78 
Alfonso  VI,  81,  82 
Alfonso  IX,  86 
Alfonso  X,  90 

Alfonso  XII,  154,  155,  156,  160 
Alfonso  XIII,    144,    148,    150, 

155.  162 
Alhambra,  92,  106,  107 
Alhama,  106 
Almanzor,  79,  80,  86 
Almoravides,  83,  84 
Alsace,  129 

Andalusian,  32,  61,  67,  79,  80 
Antony,  27 
Arabia,  91 
Aragon,  64 


Arianism,  40,  46 

Armada,  121 

Arthur,  70,  82 

Assyrian,  7 

Asturias,  6,  63,  64,  78,  81,  125 

Ataulf,  32 

Austria,  Archduke  of,  no 

Ayasha,  105 

Babel,  4 
Babylonian,  7 
Bacon,  Roger,  87 
Badajos,  83 
Baghdad,  74,  75 
Balboa,  114 
Balearic,  11 
Barcelona,  12 
Basques,  36,  70 
Battenberg,  162 
Beatrice,  162 
Berber,  2,  58,  65,  81,  83 
Bertrand  du  Gucsclin,  96 
Black  Prince,  95 
Blanche  de  Bourbon,  95 
Blenheim,  133 
Boabdil,  105,  106,  107 
Bourljon,  130 
Braganza,  Duke  de,  128 
Brummcl,  73 
Brunhilde,  42 
Brutus,  27 


169 


lyo 


INDEX. 


Cadiz,  8,  21,  55,  120 

Caesar,  26,  27 

Canaan,  7 

Canada,  138,  139 

Canning,  147 

Cantabrian,  56,  64,  127 

Carlists,  149 

Carlos  II,  128,  130,  131,  132 

Carlos  III,  135,  136,  141 

Carlos  IV,  142 

Carolinas,  129 

Carthage,  10,  12 

Carthagena,  15 

Castelar,  153 

Castile,  64,  79,  81,  94,  100,  loi, 

109 
Castilian,  81,  123 
Catalonian,  6 
Catherine,  109,  118 
Catherine  de'  Medici,  119 
Cato,  the  Elder,  22 
Cervantes,  24,  126 
Cervera,  160 
Ceuta,  18 

Chaldean  Civilization,  6 
Chanson  de  Roland,  70 
Charlemagne,  69,  70,  142 
Charles  Martel,  58,  69,  86 
Charles  I,  131 
Charles  II,  129 
Charles  V,  95,  no,  112,  122, 

123 
Chivalry,  126 
Christina,  150 
Christina,  Hapsburg,  154 
Cid,  82,  83,  85,  88 
Clovis,  36 

Columbus,  29,  109,  114 
Constantinople,  107 


Constantius,  34 

Constanza,  96 

Constitution,  144,  145,  148,  149 

Comeille,  24,  26 

Cortes,    112,     113,    144,     145, 

147 
Cortez,  112 

Count  Julian,  52-56 

Court  of  the  Lions,  106 

Covadonga,  64,  88 

Crusade,  86,  87 

Damascus,  60,  74 
Delenda  est  Carthago,  21 
De  Soto,  112 
Dictator,  27 
Dido,  12 

Don  Quixote,  126 
Don  Carlos,  159 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  120 

Edward  III,  96 

Egmont,  119 

Egyptian  Civilization,  6 

Eleanor,  Queen,  90 

Elizabeth,  120 

Ena,  Princess,  162 

Enrique  III,  96,  97 

Enrique  IV,  97 

Errigius,  73,  74 

Escurial,  117,  121,  154,  155 

Eugene,  Prince,  133 

Eulogius,  73,  74 

Evaric,  36 

Ezekiel,  10 

Ferdinand    I,    100,    loi,    105, 

107,  III,  130 
Ferdinand  VI,  135 


INDEX. 


171 


Ferdinand  VII,  142 
Fernando  I,  79 
Flanders,  112 
Florida,  121,  129 
Francis  I,  iii,  114 
Francis  d'Assisi,  152 
Frederick  II,  90 

Gallicians,  6 

Garibaldi,  153 

George  IV,  73 

Gibraltar,   18,    135,    139,    140, 

142 
Granada,  85,  86,  92,  100,  loi, 

104 
Guadalquivir,  75 

Hamilcar,  14,  15 

Hannibal,  12 

Hapsburg,  130 

Havana,  138 

Henrietta,  127 

Henry  II,  119 

Henry  VIII,  109,  iii,  117 

Hidalgo,  50,  63,  78,  123 

Hiram,  10,  109 

Hispania,  21 

Holy  AUiance,  146,  147,   148, 

149 
Konorius,  34 
Horn,  119 
Huesca,  25 
Huns,  36 

Iberia,  2,  6 
Ides  of  March,  27 
Ionian,  9 

Isabella  I,  12,  96,  100,  102,  108, 
109,  110,  130 


Isabella  II,  150,  151,  152 
Isabella  de  Bourbon,  125 
Isabel  of  Portugal,  114 
Isaiah,  13 
Islam,  59,  64 

Jamaica,  128,  129 
James  II,  131,  132 
Janizaries,  158 
Jesuits,  136 
Jezebel,  12 
Joanna,  109,  no     ' 
John  of  Gaunt,  96,  97 
Jos^  Marti,  157 
Joseph  Bonaparte,  143 
Juan  II,  100,  102 
Juntas,  143 

Karl,  Archduke  of  Austria,  132, 

133 
Kelts,  4 

Keltiberians,  5,  15,  22 
KhaHf,  6s,  66,  75-77 
Koran,  60 
Kossuth,  151 

Lee,  159 

Leo  X,  III 

Leon,  79,  81,  94 

Leopold,  132 

Lcovigild,  43 

Lira,  24 

Lorraine,  129 

Louis  IX,  90 

Louis  XIII,  125 

Louis  XIV,  127,  128,  131,  132, 

133,  134 
Louis  XV,  140 
Louisiana,  T39 


j:72 


INDEX. 


Lucan,  29 
Luther,  114,  116 

Madrid,  Treaty  of,  139 

Magellan,  114 

Mahdi,  85 

Maine,  159 

Manila,  138,  160 

Maria  Theresa,  127,  132 

Marie  de'  Medici,  125 

Marius,  23,  24 

Mariborough,  133 

Martian,  29 

Martinez  Campos,  158 

Mary  Tudor,  117,  118 

Maximilian,  109,  11 1 

Mazzini,  153 

Mercedes,  154 

Mexico,  20,  112,  137 

Milan,  135 

Minorca,  135 

Mississippi,  138 

Mithridates,  25 

Monroe,  147 

Moor,  56 

Moriscos,  126,  128 

Moscow,  143 

Montpensier,    Duke    de,    152, 

154 
Munda,  26 
Murillo,   52 
]\Iur-Viedo,  16 
Musa,  52 

Naples,  135 
Napoleon,  139,  142 
Navarre,  79,  94 
Nelson,  142 
Ne  plus  ultra,  18 


Nero,  29,  73 

Netherlands,     115,     119,     120, 

128,  135 
New  Orleans,  139 
Nineveh,  7 
Noah,  7 
Ntimantia,  24 

Octavius  Augustus,  25 

Olivier,  70 

Omeyads,  66,  67,  72,  74 

Opus  Majus,  87 

Ordoiio  I,  79 

Osca,  25 

Ostrogoths,  36 

Paladins,  70 

Pedro,  83,  95 

Pelagius,  64 

Pelasgians,  2>Oi  88 

Peru,  20,  112,  137 

Petronius,  73 

Phenicia,  91 

Philip  II,  i6r 

Philip  III,  125,  126,  127 

Philip  IV,  127,  128 

Philip  V,  2,3,  134,  135 

Philippi,  27 

Philippines,  137,  138,  156,  158, 

160 
Pillars  of  Hercules,  18,  82 
Pizzarro,   112 
Placidia,  7,3 
Plutarch,  24 
Pompey,  25,  26 
Ponce  de  Leon,  112 
Portugal,  94,  102,  109 
Pragmatic  Sanction,  151 
Pretender,  132 


INDEX. 


^7S 


Protestantism,  115,  118,  119 
Punic,  II,  14,  16 

Quebec,  138 
Quintilian,  29 

Ramiro  I,  79 
Recared,  46 
Reconcentrados,  159 
Reformation,  114 
Richelieu,  131 
Roderick,  51,  54i  S^,  lo? 
Roland,  70,  71 
Rome,  13 
Roncesvalles,  13 

Saguntum,  9,  16 

Sahara,  2 

Salic  Law,  150 

Saracen,  61,  62,  63 

Santiago  de  Cuba,  160 

Sardinia,  11,  14,  135 

Scipio,  19,  22 

Seneca,  29 

Sev-illc,  88,  89 

Sidon,  7,  12 

Spanish    Succession,   War    of, 

33 
Spartans,  30 
Si.  Augustine,  129 
St.  Bartholomew,  119 
Stuart,  House  of,  131 


Suev-i,  31 
Sylla,  23,  24 
Syrian,  7 

Tarif,  S3 
Tarshish,  10,  13 
Toledo,  45.  65 
Torquemada,  103 
Trafalgar,  142 
Troy,  9 
Tubal,  4 
Tyre,  7,  13 

Ulfilas,  39 

Utrecht,  Peace  of,  134 

Valladolid,  100,  lox,  104,  117 
Vandals,  30 
Visigoths,  36 

Wamba,  47 
WeUington,  143 
Weyler,  158 
White  Hind,  26 
Witiza,  50,  51 

Yusuf,  67 

Zante,  9 
Zar\-nthus,  9 
Zeitgeist,  162,  163, 
Zir}-ab,  73 


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